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LITERARY ATTRACTIONS 



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THE BIBLE; 



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A PLEA FOR THE WORD OF GOD, CONSIDERED 

AS A CLASSIC. 



BY 

LE ROY J. HALSEY, D. D. 



iq^l 



Thy testimonies are wonderful. 

Psalmist. 



THIRD EDITION. 

'J 

NEW YORK: 
CHARLES SORIBNi:;^* 



€/c^r^^i> c^ QSS^ -^/^'^ ^^-^^ ^ 






■J 



"6 



Entskkd according^ to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by 

CHARLES SCRIBNER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the DUtrict Court of the United Slates, for the Southern District of New Vorlu 



H. TINHOM, STKKEOTYPEU, 



B. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER. 



\ \ 



/ 



PREFACE. 



'^•►~ 



The topics presented in the several chapters of this 
volume, though apparently disconnected, have all been 
selected and discussed with one great end constantly in 
view ; and that is to make them bear, as an unbroken 
and cumulative argument, on the superhuman and con- 
sequently Divine character of the Bible. This is the 
thought that underlies the whole arrangement and gives 
it unity. This main design, though running through a 
wide range of illustration, will be found constantly re- 
curring, especially at the end of the chapters, and most 
of all in the last chapter, which was first in the order of 
conception and led to the composition of all the rest* 

In contemplating the adorable person of Immatitiel, 
there is a human as well as a Divine side to the picture. 
So also is it with the book of God* It has a human and 
a Divine side. There is a higher, and there is a lower 
point of view. It is the aim of the present work to oc- 
cupy only this lower place, and from it to contemplate 
the human side exclusively. But it has been with an 
impression ev^er present to the writer's mind and grow- 
ing to the end, that it is impossible to look long even 

V 



VI PREFACE. 



upon the human, without seeing the bright beams of 
the Divine, streaming through from the other side. Like 
the manhood in Immanuel's person, humanity here ap- 
pears in a mood so original, and so far above the usual 
style of man, that it seems itself a demonstration of 
Divinity. 

Of course nothing new can now be offered or 
attempted on such a theme. But it is hoped that 
the easy argument, if the writer may venture to call 
it such, which runs through these chapters, will at least 
arrest the attention of some who might be repelled by 
more difficult, and formal discussions of the evidence for 
the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures. Perhaps the 
best evidence, after all, is to let the Bible speak for itself. 
It is a great point gained, when we can get what is in 
the Bible fairly- before the minds of men. But there is 
more in it than many think ; mach more than any casual 
reader is ever aware of. And how is the Bible to speak 
for itself to those who will not patiently read it? Other 
books must speak for it, and tell what it contains. 

The object of these pages is to tell, at least in part, 
what it contains ; to gain the eye of those, who, under 
an impression that there is nothing in the Bible but re- 
ligion, really do not know how much there is in it ; to 
bring out to their view some of its many treasures ; and 
to present them in such a way that they shall desire to 
see more; and so be attracted to the book itself. And 
if, from this lower point of view, and from this human 
side, the reader should receive any favorable impression 
of its truth, what might he not expect to find, should 



PEEFACE. VI] 

he but ascend to the higher and holier ground? TV hat 
but the luminous strokes of God's own finger I 

" On every line. 
Marked with the seals of high Divinity 
On every leaf bedewed with drops 
Of love Divine, and with the eternal heraldry 
And signature of God Almighty stamped 
•:Trom first to last." 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER L 

6ENEBAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE AS A CLASSICAL BOOK. 

Introductory — The Bible as a Classic — The Bible adapted to Childhood— The Bible in 
the School and College — The Bible in our English version — The Bible in the four 
great Classic Tongues — The Bible as related to the State and its Schools — The Bible 
the Palladium of American Institutions — The Bible and the Church of Rome — Con- 
cluding remarks • 13-67 

CHAPTER IL 

POETRY AND THE BARDS 01 THE BIBLE. 

Nature and Uses of Poetry in the Bible — Difiference between Hebrew Prose and Poetry 
— Style of Hebrew Poetry, Parallelism — Spirit of Hebrew Poetry— Departments of 
Hebrew Poetry — Influence of Hebrew Poetry — Writers of Poetry in the Bible — The 
Seven Greater Bards — The Argument from Poetry — Concluding Remarks, . 68-llT 

CHAPTER III. 

ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

Elements and Characteristics ox Eloquence — Illustrations of Eloquence — Earliest 
Example of Eloquence in the Old Testament — Judah as an Orator — Aaron as an 
Orator — Other Examples fi-om the Old Testament — Eloquence of Hushai, the 

Archite, 118-152 

ix 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE ELOQUENT ORATORS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

Examples of Perverted Eloquence — Herod and Tertullus — Speech of Gamaliel — The Elo- 
quent ApoUos — Stephen's Address to the Council — Preaching of John the Baptist—* 
Peter as an Orator — Speech of James before the Synod — The Recorder or Town- 
clerk of Ephesus — The Eloquence of Paul — Paul on Mars Hill — Discourses of our 
Lord — Conclusion, . ♦ 153-201 

CHAPTER V. 

TTPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER IN THE BIBLB. 

Interest of the Subject — General View — Classification — Picture of Eve — Sarah and 
Rebekah — Character of Deborah — Character of Esther and Ruth — Jezebel and Atha- 
liah — Herodias and her dancing Daughter — ^Abigail, Hannah, and Martha — The Ma- 
rys—Concluding Remarks, • • . . 20^269 



CHAPTER VT. 



REPRESENTATIVE TOUNG MEN OF THE BIBLB. 



Range and Limits of the Theme— The First of Young Men— The First Two Brothers- 
Character of Joseph — The Youth of Moses — Sketch of David and Jonathan — Sketch 
of Samuel and Saul — Saul and Samuel at Endor — Character of Absalom — The Young 
Man as Sovereign— The Young Men of the Captivity — Young Men of the New Tes- 
tament, ,, 260-328 



CHAPTER Vn. 

SCIENCE AND THE SAGES OF THE BIBLE. 

Relations and Bearings of the Subject— The Moral Science of the Bible— The Bible on 
Physical Science— First Scientific Characteristic— Second Characteristic— Third 
Characteristic— Additional Illustrations— The Sages of the Bible . . . 824-870 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER Vin. 

ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLB. 

rhe Divine Existence — The Providence of God — The Personal Character of Christ — 
The Idea of Special Divine Influence — The Church of God — The Common Brother- 
hood of Man — The Day of Sacred Rest — The Millennium — The Resurrection of the 
Dead — The Last Judgment — The Heavenly World — The Scheme of Redemption — 
Recapitulation and Conclusion, .••••••.. 871-441 



ATTRACTIONS OF THE BIBLE. 



■•»■ 



CHAPTER I 

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE AS A 

CLASSICAL BOOK. 

Introductory — The Bible as a Classic — The Bible adapted to Childhood— The Bible in 
the School and College — The Bible in our English version — The Bible in the four 
great Classic Tongues — The Bible as related to the State and its Schools — The Bible 
the Palladium of American Institutions — The Bible and the Church of Rome — Con- 
cluding remarks. 

I. INTRODUCTORY. 

In the following pages, addressed mainly, though not exclu- 
sively, to our educated youth, it is proposed to present an outline 
of what may be called the Incidental Attractions of the Bible ; 
or, in other words, to set forth its claims both as a classic, and 
as a book of general education. As a book of religion, around 
which cluster all our hopes of immortality, the Bible has merits 
of the very highest order ; and these, with every serious mind, 
will be, as they ever ought to be, its greatest attractions. But, 
aside from the religion which it reveals to us, and the good 
news of salvation which it brings us, the Bible has other attrac- 
tions. 

18 



14 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

It is the book of our learning, not less than our religion ; the 
basis of our civilization, not less than our salvation. It is the 
charter of our rights and liberties, as truly as it is the oracle 
of our faith, the manual of our devotions, and the anchor of 
our hopes. It has moulded into shape, and it has quickened 
into life, the whole body of our secular learning, as well as our 
theology. It has breathed its own vital spirit into all our 
science, literature, legislation, philosophy, social and political 
institutions. It has led the van of ancient and of modern civiliza- 
tion in its march around the globe. It has been the great 
well-spring of living water, out of which have issued all the 
glad streams of intellectual and moral health, that are now 
found flowing in every civilized land beneath the sun. Thus 
far, it has been the great educator and civilizer of man ; and it 
is, doubtless, destined to be his greatest educator in all time to 
come, his most effective civilizer in every dark abode of heathen- 
ism throughout the world. 

But, whilst it is chiefly as a book of religion, and especially 
of religious education, that the Bible has spread civilization 
among the nations ; still it is true, that regarded simply as a 
book of learning, of taste and genius, of history and eloquence, 
it has exerted an influence which cannot be too highly esti- 
mated. * As such, it has claims which commend themselves to 
every cultivated understanding. Independently of all its higher 
glories — the knowledge which it gives us of the way to 
heaven, and the hope with which it inspires us of a blessed 
immortality — there are attractions which may be felt and 
appreciated^ even by the irreligious and the worldly-minded. 
And these, it is our purpose to group together in one distinct 
and connected view. 

Our object will be to speak of the book of God, as a pro- 



OF THE BIBLE. 15 

duction of inspired genius and classic taste ; to illustrate the 
sublimity of its thoughts, the beauty of its diction, the wide 
compass of its history, the vast variety of its biography, and 
the infinite range of its imagination ; to reveal something of its 
immeasurable wealth, as a field of knowledge, a mine of wis- 
dom, a model of eloquence, a master-piece of poesy, a fountain 
of influence, a text-book of instruction ; and thus to render it, 
so far as we shall be able, attractive to all, especially to the 
young. In other words, we propose to walk around about 
Jerusalem, to mark well her bulwarks, to admire her beauty, to 
gaze upon the outer glories of her temple. 

As ancient Israel was the glory of all the earth, Jerusalem 
the glory of Israel, and her temple the glory of Jerusalem, even 
so is the Bible now to Christianity, and to the world. It is the 
most glorious, outward, and visible heritage, which has come 
down from the past. It stands to the Christian and to the 
Church, as the temple did to the Jew. It is the throne of 
power. It is the symbol of all greatness. It is the shrine of 
all good. It is the centre of universal attraction. It is the 
radiating point of all blessed influences. It contains all the 
holy records. Within it are found the patterns of things in the 
heavens — the Ark, the Testimony, the Mercy-Seat, the Manna 
and the Budding Rod, the Cherubim shadowing with wings, 
and the Shekinah. 

But it is not to gaze upon any of these glories of the inner 
sanctuary that we are now come. It is to stand before the 
beautiful gate of this mount of vision ; to look around upon 
all the wonderful adornments of this hill of the Lord, 
the gold, the silver, the marble and the precious stones, with 
that kind of enthusiasm which the traveller feels upon the 
Athenian Acropolis, or the Roman Capitoline. The Bible 



16 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

is our mount of vision, and its outstanding beauties now attract 
our view. 

It is thought that these characteristics of the Bible may be 
illustrated by a comparison with other books, by a reference to 
passing events, by a description of ancient scenes in our current 
phraseology ; that they may be presented in a somewhat mo- 
dern popular dress, which, while it shall not offend the taste of 
the scholar on the one hand, nor the piety of the Christian on 
the other, may attract the attention of our educated youth ; 
and thus become the means of leading them to a better acquain- 
tance with this Divine book. At all events, such is our hope. 
For in these days of fiction, when the world is so easily turned 
upside down by every new writer of tales ; when history phi- 
losophy, and even theology, stoop to the writing of a two-volum- 
ed novel as their best achievement ; when there are so many 
books, leading our youth away from the Bible, and creating a 
distaste for its sacred, truth-loving pages — whatever may be 
said, be it ever so little, to create a better taste, and lead them 
back to this book of books, will be so much gained for the 
cause of sound learning amongst us. 

There are many persons who will read a page or chapter, 
attracted by the sight of some well-known historical name, or 
some familiar line of poetry, who would otherwise pass it by 
unread. In like manner, may we not hope, that some of our young 
friends, allured by a chance illustration from history, or allusion 
to current events, or comparison of the sacred and profane 
writers, or favorite quotation from the poets, or, it may be, mere 
suggestion that there is more science in this venerable book 
than they had ever given it credit for, will be led thus to peruse 
it for themselves ; to peruse it with growing interest, until, 
advancing from the less to the greater, and from the outer tc 



OF THE BIBLE. 17 

the inner sanctuary, they find for themselves that other attrac- 
tion, which is its chief glory — even a Saviour who is God over 
all blessed forever. Such, at least, is our desire. 

In every generation, prejudice has put the same question re- 
specting this book, which was asked respecting the Master him- 
self at the beginning ; *^ Can there any good thing come out of 
Nazareth V^ And to every sincere, though prejudiced Nathaniel, 
we cannot do better than to answer in the words of Nathaniel's 
friend : '^ Come and see." If you will come and see, if you 
will read and examine the book for yourselves, our office shall 
be to act as an humble guide, who, having gone over the 
ground before, would tell what scenes of beauty and sublim- 
ity, and more than earthly glory, we have found in this rich 
land. We will act the part of Philip, and show to you what 
others hare shown to us. 

Still further, it shall be our aim to avoid everything of a con- 
troversial and sectarian character. We wish to speak as a 
friend of the Bible ; and as such, to address all to whom the 
Bible is addressed. Nothing gives us a more heart-felt pleasure, 
than to come out, as often as we can, from the inclosures of 
denominational peculiarities, and stand in the wide, open field 
of our common Christianity. In exhibiting the attractions of 
the book of God-, we rejoice that it is our privilege to speak in 
such a way, that all the friends of evangelical truth may feel at 
home with us, saying : This, too, is our book, this is our heri- 
tage forever, the lamp of our feet, the guide of our youth. We 
may all look upon the Bible as we look upon the broad domain 
of nature, or upon the blue heavens above. It is common pro- 
perty. It is all ours. It all belongs to each of us, because 
our Father made it. We breathe a common air ; we gaze upon 
the same loveliness ; the same landscape smiles in beauty at our 



18 GENERAL CHAKACTERISTICS 

feet ; the same heavens encompass us ; in the Bible, as in the 
book of nature, we are all at home, for God, our Father, is over 
all, and in all. When we read other books, there is a limit to 
our view — a narrow boundary, a low circumscribed horizon, 
which we must not pass. But when we open the Bible, it is 
with a feeling that a world is all before us, the skies are all 
bright and the land is all free. 

"No pent up tJtica contracts our powers, 
But the whole boundless continent is ours." 

It is With this enlarged spirit of liberality, and of Christian 
brotherhood, fostered by the book which we advocate, that we 
now undertake to adress as many of our fellow-Christians and 
fellow-citizens — the parents, teachers, and youth of this genera- 
tion — as may do us the favor to read these pages. 



II. ^THE BIBLE AS A CLASSIC. 

It is greatly to be desired that our children and youth should 
grow up with the conviction firmly fixed in their minds, that 
the Bible is a classic of the very highest authority in all mat- 
ters of education, taste, and genius ; that it holds the same 
place of preeminence in the republic of letters which it holds 
in the Church of God. It is exceedingly important, that the 
public mind should be made to understand what the most emi- 
nent scholars of all ages and all lands have always understood 
and confessed — that there is no book in the world which can 
stand before the Bible as a classic. Such an impression, early 
implanted and generally received, would do much to save our 
young people from the evils of that flimsy, superficial literature, 
which, in the form of the wild, extravagant romance, the love- 



OF THE BIBLE. 19 

sick novel, and the run-mad poem, is coming in npoa us like a 
flood. It would do much to rescue the rising generation from 
that deluge of fiction, which now threatens to overlay the learn- 
ing of this boasted nineteenth century with a deeper detritus 
of trash than that of all the geological epochs. 

Now, the Bible, regarded as a model of classical taste, is the 
great antidote and corrective for this evil. We must teach our 
youth to look upon it, not only as a book for the Sabbath and 
the Sanctuary, but as a book for the family, the school, and the 
college. We must set it before them as worthy of the most 
honored place, alike in the cottages of the poor, the palaces of 
the rich, and the libraries of the learned. We must not let 
them forget, that it is, at once, the most ancient, the most sub- 
lime, the most wonderful of all the classics. We do not discard 
Homer and Virgil from the classics because they contain a reli- 
gion, even an absurd, fabulous religion ; why, then, should we 
underrate, or disparage the classical claims of the Bible, because 
it contains a religion, and that, the only true religion ? Does 
the Bible cease to be a classic, because, in addition to the 
inspiration of human genius, it has the higher inspiration of 
God ? Does its learning cease to be learning, its eloquence to 
be eloquent, because it is sanctified and animated by the breath 
of Divinity ? No ; the Bible is as truly a classic as Homer or 
Virgil, Xenophon or Cicero, Milton or Addison. It fills a place 
in ancient and modern literature, which no Greek or Eoman 
author ever filled, or can fill. It has done, for the literature of 
all civilized nations, what no Greek or Eoman book could ever 
have done. 

As a Hebrew book, for more than fifteen centuries, it com- 
prised almost the entire literature and learning of a whole nation. 
As a Hebrew book, it exerted an influence which no other book^ 



20 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

not even the Koran of Mohammed, has ever attained over any 
people. And, notwithstanding all the vicissitudes of states and 
empires, the removal and extinction of nations, it has never lost 
its original supremacy. It acquired the same place of power 
over the conquering, classical Greeks and Romans, which it had 
held so long over the Jews. It then did, successively, for the 
conquering barbarians of Northern Europe, what it had done 
for the Greeks and Romans. A classic to the Hebrews, it be- 
came a classic in the languages of Demosthenes and Cicero ; 
and it has become classical in the vernacular tongue of every 
European nation. And that which it has done for these, it is 
now doing in every pagan nation on earth to which the Pro- 
testant missionary has been sent. 

It is not too much, then, to claim for the Bible, that, as a 
classic, it stands without a rival at the head of all human litera- 
ture. It is not too much to say, that it has eventually con- 
trolled and impregnated, with its own immortal spirit, the 
literature of every people, into whose vernacular it has been 
translated. And at this moment, there is not, perhaps, in the 
whole world of letters, a more important and effective work 
going forward, than that work of translation, which, under the 
silent but sublime labors of the missionary, is making the Bible 
a classic book in every human tongue. There has been no such 
transmigration from land to land, and from language to lan- 
guage, of the Koran, or the Shaster, or any other book claiming 
to be a Divine revelation. The Bible, therefore, whether we 
read it in its original tongues, in its manifold ancient and 
modern versions, or in our own admirable English translation, 
bears upon its face the very aspect of majesty, of high classical 
antiquity, of inherent undisputed superiority. Translate it, 
however badly, dilute it, however much with paraphrases ; still 



OF THE BIBLE. 21 

it is almost impossible to hide the native beauty of its imagery, 
or the original lustre of its thoughts. They will still break out, 
like sunshine through the clouds, or spring-buds from the cells 
in which winter had bound them. 

There is a richness of conception, a universality in its spirit, 
a range and amplitude of thought, a power of illustration, a 
truthfulness to nature, an insight into character, a familiarity 
with the unseen and eternal, a fund of information, a variety of 
incident, and a consciousness of authority in all its utterances, 
which give to all the words and images of the Bible, the charm 
of originality, the impress of genius, and the force of an endless 
life. No book ever did speak, or can speak to the heart of the 
individual man, and to the great heart of the world, as the 
Bible has done. It alone has a voice which can reach all the 
depths of the human spirit, and awake the slumbering intellect 
from the stupor of ages. It alone, of religious books, has a 
largeness of view which makes it congenial to humanity every- 
where ; classical and indigenous on every soil, in every era, 
beneath the stars of every firmament. It is as much at home 
with man amid the splendid capitals of Europe, the snows of 
Greenland, the islands of the South Seas, and the wild woods 
of America, as it was in the streets of Jerusalem, or the hill 
country of Judea. You feel, at once, on reading it, and you 
can never cease to feel while you read, that, if it is anything, 
it is everything ; it bears its own credentials ; it carries a self- 
evidencing power, not only of religious truth, but of classic 
beauty. It is true to nature and true to man ; it describes to 
the life, the world within, and the world without. It speaks of 
that which we know already, so truly, and with such graphic 
power, as to impress us with the conviction of the truth of every- 
thing else which it tells us, about things which we did not know 



22 GENERAL CHAKACTERISTICS 

Moreover, everything in it, and about it, is on a scale of 
magnificence and grandeur. Everything bears the stamp of a 
more than regal, more than mortal greatness. Everything is 
in accordance with the character of its infinite author ; every- 
thing is represented as it stands related to him ; so that what 
is insignificant in itself becomes great from its connection with 
the Deity. And no mind can come fully under its influence, for 
any length of time, without partaking somewhat of its own 
intellectual and moral greatness. Does a man seek for great 
thoughts, fitted to enlarge the intellect ? Here are thoughts as 
vast as the universe of matter or mind. Does he crave burning 
words ? Here are words that glow with the fires of immortal- 
ity. Does he love poetry, and ask for images of beauty ? Here 
are angelic harmonies, and forms radiant with all the tints of 
earth and heaven. Does he love to read the records of the 
great ? Here are the most wonderful characters in history — 
characters that lived a thousand years — characters, '* without 
beginning of days or end of years.'' 

Now, let any child read this book in the nursery and in the 
school, and then read it on through life ; let the poor laborer 
study it nightly after his daily toil ; let the humblest cottager in 
the land make it the companion of his thoughts from the cradle 
to the grave ; let the young man make it the guide of his 
■youth, and the old man the companion of his declining years ; 
and it is as if he had been associated with the most ex- 
alted scenes and characters in the universe ; it is as if you had 
taken him out from his humble dwelling, and sent him to school 
to patriarchs, prophets, and apostles ; it is, as if you had given 
him converse and familiar fellowship with kings and nobles of 
the earth, and with the angels of God ; it is as if he had been 
caught up to that third heaven of unutterable things, where, in 



OF THE BIBLE. 23 

the visions of God, lie might learn the true dimensions of man 
Let any man of ordinary intelligence be thoroughly initiated 
into the great things of this book, and it shall be the best pos- 
sible guaranty, that his estimate of all other things will be cor- 
rect ; to borrow the phraseology of Chalmers, he can never more 
forget the relative proportion of two magnitudes — the littleness 
of time, the greatness of eternity. 

The constant readhag of this book cannot fail to form a true 
taste, because it cannot fail to inspire a love of truth and 
beauty — a real heart-felt appreciation of the sublime and beau- 
tiful both in nature and art. And this taste, if early formed, 
becomes an effectual safe-guard against all false, meretricious writ- 
ings. If you educate your child so as to give him an early fond- 
ness for such models of poetic art as the Iliad or Paradise Lost, 
there is not much danger that he will acquire a relish for trash 
and bombast. Even so it is with a mind, early imbued with 
admit&tion for the Bible as a model of classic beauty. In cor- 
recting the judgment and elevating the taste, a constant study 
of the Bible has much of the same effect on the mind, as that 
which would be produced by an observation of the works of 
nature and art in all lands. It is, as if one had become a uni-^ 
versal traveller — had seen man in all his moods, nature in all 
her aspects, grandeur in its most stately steppings, and beauty 
in her loveliest charms. Yes, of all books, the Bible is the truest 
Cosmos. And of all students, the Bible student is the most 
thorough cosmopolite. Its variety is endless. Its scenes and 
characters are diversified and infinite, like the universe. 

In illustration of this boundless variety of subjects contained 
in the Bible, the following words of Mrs. Ellis, at once compre- 
hensive and glowing with the poetry of real life, may be cited : 
*' From the worm that grovels in the dust beneath our feet, to 



24 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

the Leviathan in the foaming deep ; from the moth that corrupts 
the secret treasure, to the eagle that soars above his eyrie in 
the clouds ; from the ass in the desert, to the lamb within the 
shepherd's fold ; from the consuming locust, to the cattle upon 
a thousand hills ; from the rose of Sharon, to the cedar of Leb' 
anon ; from the crystal stream gushing forth out of the flinty 
rock, to the wide waters of the deluge ; from the lonely path 
of the wanderer, to the gathering of a mighty multitude ; from 
the tear that falls in secret, to the din of battle and the shout 
of a triumphant host ; from the mourner clad in sackcloth, to 
the prince in purple robes ; from the gnawiugs of the worm 
that dieth not, to the seraphic visions of the blest ; from the still 
voice of conscience, to the thunders of Omnipotence ; from the 
depths of hell, to the regions of eternal glory ; there is no degree 
of beauty or deformity, no' tendency to good or evil, no shade of 
darkness or gleam of light which does not come within the cog- 
nizance of the Holy Scriptures ; and therefore, there is no ex- 
pression or conception of the mind that may not find a corres- 
ponding picture ; no thirst for excellence that may not meet 
with its full supply, and no condition of humanity necessarily 
excluded from the unlimited scope of adaption and sympathy 
comprehended in the language and spirit of the Bible." 

Are we not then authorized in saying of the Bible, that be- 
sides all its other uses, it is entitled to the place of preeminence 
amongst books, as being the great treasure-house of thought 
and the great model of classic beauty — the most wonderful 
and perfect work of taste and genius which has ever appeared 
amongst men ? Call it what you will, a Divine revelation, or 
a human production — an inspiration from God, or an inspira- 
tion of genius ; still it must be admitted to be the most remark- 
able book in the world and to exhibit the most remarkable 



OF THE BIBLE. 25 

achievement, that has ever been made bj man, or for man, in 
his advance towards perfection. On this point, however, we find 
an ample solution. We hold it to be the greatest of classics, 
because it is inspired of God — the most perfect work of the 
human mind, because a mind more than human is everywhere at 
work in it. '* Thy testimonies are wonderful." 



III. ^THE BIBLE ADAPTED TO CHILDHOOD. 

It is worthy of remark, and it should be to all parents an in- 
structive fact, that there is a sort of development and progress 
in the Sacred Scriptures, corresponding to the development and 
progress of human life. The world has had its periods of infancy, 
childhood, and youth, prior to full maturity. Every individual 
of our race has the same corresponding periods. And, answer- 
ing to these, the Bible history may be said to have its several 
periods of infancy, childhood, and youth. The New Testament, 
with its sublime Gospel history, its profound doctrinal Epistles, 
and its mysterious prophetic Apocalypse, is but the finishing of 
that intellectual and moral manhood, which is supposed to have 
had its early education in the preparatory school of the Old 
Testament. 

The composition of the different books of Scripture extended 
through fifteen centuries. The Bible, in the order of its forma- 
tion, seems to be exactly adapted to life in the order of its ad- 
vancement. And if so, it would appear reasonable, that every 
individual should follow that order in the study of it, which its 
great author adopted in giving it to the world. In order then, 
that a man may be able fully to understand and appreciate the 
New Testament, he must have read the Old ; and not only 

2 



26 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

have read it, but, what is the all important and instructive fact, 
he must have read it in his youth — known it like Timothy from 
his very childhood. If he has failed to read it at that period 
of hfe, for which God seems to have expressly designed it, he 
has lost an advantage which it is almost impossible ever to re- 
gain. He has lost, indeed, what no subsequent reading or 
knowledge of it can ever give him — the impressions of childhood, 
all those peculiarly vivid and ineffaceable impressions which the 
Bible never fails to make upon every child who reads it aright. 
And there is scarcely anything which we receive in childhood, 
which a man might not better afford to lose. With no remem- 
brances of the Bible, coming up fresh from the fountains of his 
childhood, in all his subsequent reading, he fiuds himself in the 
condition of an old man with an uncultivated memory, sitting 
down to the task of learning a new language. If we would 
acquire the knowledge of new languages with facihty, we must 
do it in early life ; we must, at least, lay a foundation for it, 
by studying the grammar in childhood and youth. In an im- 
portant sense, the Old Testament history is the grammar, by 
which we must learn the language of the whole Bible; There 
are some books which we are all accustomed to read in our 
childhood, if we ever read them at all. They have not much 
attraction for us, unless we read them as children ; and then, 
they never lose their charm. We can read them with fresh 
interest even down to old age ; just because, having first read 
them at the proj^er season, we live over again in each perusal 
all the impressions of our childhood and youth. 

Even so it is with the Bible, especially with those narrative 
portions of the Old Testament, which no child can read with- 
out wonder and delight, and which none that reads can ever 
forget. Every return to them in subsequent hfe, will be like 



OF THE BIBLE. 27 

going back to the home of our childhood after years of absence, 
to renew our youthful sports and pleasures in that quiet valley, 
or on that river's bank, or beneath that humble roof, where 
first we saw the light. Indeed, we have no hesitation in say- 
ing, that the best possible preparation for a full understanding 
and appreciation of the Scriptures, in the years of our maturity, 
is, that like Timothy we should have known them from our 
childhood. 

Have you never observed with what difficulty an old man, 
unacquainted with the Bible in his youth, is induced to read the 
Old Testament regularly through ? Have you ever seen the 
experiment of a first reading, made by one who has long 
cherished skeptical opinions ? Take a man of strong common 
sense, well-educated as to other books, but ignorant of the 
Bible, and induce him, if you can, to read it for the first time. 
Suppose him unacquainted even with the New Testament ; and 
now, at your request, he sits down to the task of reading the 
Old Testament regularly from the beginning. What is the re- 
sult ? In all probability, before he reaches the end of Genesis, 
he will close the book in utter incredulity and disgust. He 
cannot understand it. He sees no beauty in it. He abandons 
the task in despair* No ; that will not do for him. With him 
you must try a different method. He has been too long min- 
gling as an actor, in the daily affairs of our present busy 
world, to be placed back so far, and so suddenly, into that 
wonderful world of the past. Had he been a boy of twelve or 
sixteen years, he would have read on, allured and absorbed by 
those stupendous scenes which have so repelled and disgusted 
him as a man. The very things which so offend him as a 
rationalist and an infidel, would have charmed him most as a 
child. 



28 



GENERAL CHA.RACTERISTICS 



But with him now j ou must reverse the process, if you would 
attract him by the Bible. You must give him the New Testa- 
ment first ; and, with that, let him work his way back to the 
simple faith of childhood. Let him first read the New Testa- 
tament, which is mainly addressed to the logical reason and 
the moral sense of man, at his maturity ; and then, converted 
and become as it were a little child again, and keeping ever in 
his hand the New Testament as a lamp to his feet, he will, 
perhaps, have faith enough in history^ and confidence enough 
in God, to thread his way through all the wonders of the Old — 
to see beauty, glory, and divinity in all that ancient, oriental, 
Bible history, which recounts the youth of nature, the childhood 
of the world, and the infancy of all created things. Still, there 
may bo some things, even then, hard to be understood, which 
will be to him a stumbling-block as long as he lives ; and that 
for no other cause than this — that his parents neglected the 
ordinance of God, which, old as the days of Moses, required 
them to teach all these things to their child, while he was a 
child. 

As an illustration of the truth of these remarks, you may 
observe, that when our foreign missionaries carry the gospel to 
the adult population of heathen lands, it is the New Testament 
which they first translate, and put into the hands of the people. 
And then, by degrees, as they become somewhat acquainted 
with the New Testament Scriptures, portions of the Old are 
translated. But as soon as schools are established, and the 
native children and youth collected for instruction, the whole 
Bible from the beginning, with all its wonderful events, is set 
before them in that same order of nature by which God has 
adapted it to the opening minds of every land and of every 
generation. 



OF THE BIBLE. 29 

It is true that the vouno: mind is interested in readini^ the 
New Testament as well as the Old ; for this has its wonderful 
things as well as that. Indeed, there is in the Xew Testament, 
taken separately, the same gradual advancement from the sim- 
ple to the profound, which marks the Scriptures throughout as 
a whole — first, the wonderful personal biography of Jesus, then 
the wider history of the Apostles, next the profound epistles, 
and then the sublime prophesies of the Apocalypse ; each pre- 
paring the way for its successor, and each adapted to maturer 
years and a larger knowledge in the reader. You will find, 
however, that the mind of a child will be mostly attracted by 
precisely those parts of the Xew Testament — the biographical 
and historical, which contain the *' signs and wonders," and in 
which it resembles the Old ; such, for example, as the appari- 
tion of angels, voices from heaven, the mighty works of Jesus, 
the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of the 
Son of God. 

Now, if there be truth in these remarks, you see at once, 
what an important place the Scriptures, both of the Old Testa- 
ment and the New, hold in the education of our children. As 
a book of education, no part of the Bible has become, or ever 
can become obsolete. The whole Bible, from first to last, is 
inspired of God and wisely arranged, so as to meet the wants 
of the human mind, in its aspirations after knowledge and 
happiness, in every stage of its development from infancy to 
old age. And this is more than can be claimed for any ojther 
book in the world. 

We believe the study of the Bible, with all its wonderful 
history and biography — its kings and statesmen, its women and 
children, its heroes and sages, its bards and prophets, its patri- 
archs and apostles, its orators and jurists — ^to be just as needful 



30 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

now, in the education of our youth, as it ever was in any former 
period. We believe the Bible to be a complete and perfect 
text-book of instruction. We hold it to be, not only the best 
book which has ever existed, but for all purposes of education, the 
best which could have been made out of such materials as this 
world's history has thus far afforded. We have no idea, that 
any man or set of men, however wise and learned, could now 
frame, out of all the existing materials in the world outside of 
the Bible, any book which could be compared with this, in its 
admirable adaptation, as a book of education, to the youth of 
all generations and all lands, and which, at the same time, 
should be none the less adapted to all other periods of human 
life. No such collectanea could be formed out of all that 
remains of the classical learning of Greece and Eome. The 
literature of all modern times, excepting that which has been 
modelled after the Bible, could not furnish such a compend of 
universal instruction. This, indeed, is one among the many 
wondrous characteristics of the Bible — its vast combination of 
different elements, its amazing comprehensiveness, adapting it 
to each class and each individual in particular, and to all 
alike. 

We grant you, there are portions of it which no child can 
understand ; which no man, no philosopher, can fully under- 
stand. There are many things in it which we see, as through 
a glass, darkly ; which we must be content to know only in 
part ; just as there are many barren rocks, and trackless desert 
w^astes, and vast ice-fields on the earth's surface, whose utility 
we cannot perceive, and which a modern philosopher would 
probably have left out, had he been consulted in the making of 
a world. There is just as little reason to think, that human 
philosophy would have made the world as it is, or have governed 



OF THE BIBLE. 31 

it as it is governed, as that it would have made just such a 
Bible as God has given us. In either case, his ways are not as 
our ways. But is it any impeachment of the Divine wisdom, or 
proof that the world was not made by God, that we find in it a 
Scylla and Charybdis, a Cape Hatteras, a frozen ocean, or a 
Sahara desert ? No more is it an argument against the Divine 
origin or excellence of the Scriptures, that they contain whole 
chapters of genealogy, and ceremonial laws, and unknown pro- 
phecies, which we may not be able to bring within the compass 
of our views of utility. If there are things in the Bible hard 
to be understood, deep things of God which have not yet given 
up their secrets to any human explorer ; things that, from the 
first, were intended for the reading of future ages ; let us not 
forget that the same is true of universal nature ; '' there are 
more things in heaven and earth than are known to our phi- 
losophy.'' Let us bear in mind that a time is coming, when we 
shall see, eye to eye, and face to face ; shall know even as we are 
known. A future day shall bring to light what is now hidden 
from our vision ; and if not the day of this life, at any rate the 
night of death. For both, in material and in spiritual things, 
it stands true, that ^* darkness shows us worlds of light we 
never saw by day." We may rest assured that a Bible without 
mysteries, and a world without wonders, would be no improve- 
ment of either, as it regards the great purpose for which they 
were intended. Our modern rationalist would strike out all 
that is miraculous in the Bible. He would reject, as fabulous, 
all the accounts of a world created out of nothing, the origin 
and unity of our race, the temptation and fall of Adam, the 
longevity of the patriarchs, the Ark and Deluge of Noah, the 
tower of Babel, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the 
plagues of Egypt, the passage of the Eed Sea, the pillar of 



32 GENERAL CHARACTERISlToS 

cloud and fire, the trumpets of Sinai, the waters of the smitten 
rock, the burning bush, the manna of the wilderness, the cross- 
ing of Jordan, the falling of the walls of Jericho, the stopping 
of the sun, the vision of angels, the fire from heaven, the raising 
of the dead, the fiery furnace, and the den of lions at Babylon, 
the fish of Jonah, the translation of Enoch, the ascension of 
Elijah, the transfiguration and all the stupendous miracles of 
Christ. But, without these, what would the Bible be, more 
than any other book, to childhood and youth ? Did God make 
the Bible, any more than he did this wondrous world before us, 
only for the accommodation of a few rationalists and infidel 
philosophers ! If all the infidels, who have ever lived, 
had believed in it, their whole number would be but as a 
drop in the bucket, compared with the milhons upon millions, 
who have believed in it as it is, without their aid, and despite 
their opposition. In fact, it is by these very things, that the 
Bible is so admirably adapted to the young. It is by the 
attraction of these Divine wonders, that it has gained and held 
its mastery over the children and the adult population of every 
civilized country in the world. Truly, " Thy testimonies are 
wonderful.'' 



IV. — THE BIBLE IN THE SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 

From all that has been said in favor of the Bible, as a classic, 
and as a book adapted to childhood and youth, it follows as a legi- 
timate inference of great practical importance, that it ought, in- 
variably, to form a part of the regular course of instruction in 
all our schools and colleges. In every system of classical, col- 
legiate education, it ought to be studied in its original tongues, 



OF THE BIBLE. 33 

just as our youth study the Greek and Latin authors. We see 
no reason why, as models of beauty, or as exercises of mental 
culture, the language and literature of Rome or of Athens 
should be preferred to that of Jerusalem. On the single ground 
of taste and genius, we believe that Moses and the Prophets, 
in their venerable Hebrew, are fully equal to Homer and Yirgil, 
Herodotus and Livy. And, accordingly, an acquaintance with 
them in the original, ought to be regarded as an essential part 
of a liberal, accomplished, collegiate education. 

But the Bible has much wider claims than these. Few com- 
paratively, can ever study it in its original tongues. Every 
man, every child at school, may study it in English. And it is 
chiefly as an English classic, the best and most important in 
our language, that we advocate its claims. No school ought to 
be found without the Bible. No course of education ought to 
be considered complete without it. No individual ought to be 
regarded as adequately educated without a knowledge of it. 
If there is any one book which deserves to be held as indispen- 
sable in every school, and in every course of education, it is the 
Bible. As an English classic, and a text-book of daily instruc- 
tion, it ought to hold the same foremost place in all our schools, 
which we know a part of it did hold as a Hebrew classic, and 
that by Divine commandment, in all the schools of the Jews» 
for thousands of years ; and which, indeed it does still hold 
amongst the remnants of the chosen people throughout the 

world. 

It is in no spirit of dogmatism, that we set up this claim for 
the Bible as a book of education at school. Argument could 
be given, if any argument were needed, except the bare state- 
ment of the case. Does it require any argument to show that 

the book, which has caused all our learning, as well as our reli- 

9-^ 



34 GEI^ERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

gion, to differ from that of the Mohammedans, the ancient Pa- 
gans, and the modern heathen nations, ought to be read in our 
schools ; that the book which tells us all we know, with cer- 
tainty, about God and a future state, and gives us the highest 
sanctions we have, for our morality, our laws, our institutions 
of marriage, the family and the state, ought to be read and 
studied at school ? Surely, if argument is to be brought, it 
would require much argument to show that such a book ought 
not to be studied there. If ancient history ought to be studied 
at school, then ought the Bible to be studied, as containing the 
most ancient, most important, and most interesting history in 
the world. If the lives of illustrious men ought to be read, 
then ought this book to be read, with its biography of illustri- 
ous names, extending from Adam to Jesus Christ. If our youth 
may read at school the great masters of eloquence and poesy, 
then may they read the Bible there, as containing the sublimest 
strains of the one, and the most finished specimens of the other, 
which our race has ever produced. If the elements of all mo- 
ral and mental science, the principles of virtue and political wis- 
dom, may be taught at school, then may the Bible be taught, 
for it is the fountain whence all these have flowed. If religion 
itself ought to be taught at school, as a legitimate part, and by 
far the most important part of all education, then ought the 
Bible to be taught, as being the book of our common Christi- 
anity, the only true and Divine revelation in the world. 

But, independently of this last consideration, our jDlea for the 
Bible as a school-book still stands good. You tell us you do 
not receive the Bible as the book of your religion ; or, you do 
not wish your child to learn Christianity at school ; or, that 
this is a part of instruction which you reserve for yourself. 
Well, be it so. And what then ? Our claim for the Bible as 



OF THE BIBLE. 35 

a school-book is still untouched. If you deny the inspiration 
of God, you cannot deny the inspirations of genius which 
breathe forth on every page. If you choose to ignore all its 
evidences as a Divine revelation, you cannot ignore its history, 
and biography, and morality, and learning, its eloquence and 
poetry, without, at the same time forfeiting your own claim to 
be a man of taste, capable of appreciating the sublime and 
beautiful. If unwilling to have the religion of the Bible taught 
at school, what objection can you have to its learning and mo- 
rality ? You cannot wish to exclude from our schools the most 
effective and beneficial history, biography, literature, and phi- 
losophy, which the world has ever produced. 

If it could be proved, by an absolute demonstration, that the 
religion of the Bible is a cunningly devised fable, so that Christ- 
ianity should henceforth take its place with the mythology of 
Greece and Rome as an exploded system, still it would remain 
true as a historical fact, and, indeed the most remarkable fact 
on that assumption in the world's history, that this book has 
been more widely known and received by the nations of the 
the earth, has exerted a more beneficial and enduring influence 
upon them than any other book, whether of facts or of mytho- 
logies. And, therefore, both for what it contains in itself, and 
for what it has done in the world, even as a book of mythology, 
it would be entitled to take rank, in our schools and colleges, 
above Homer or Hesiod, Yirgil or Ovid. True or false, then, in- 
spired or uninspired, Divine or human, the Bible deserves to be 
studied at school, so long as anything is studied ; so long as 
men have any interest in knowing, and in causing their children 
to know, what has been said and done in this world of ours in 
past ages. And we must be permitted here to say, that the 
child in this Christian land, who is permitted to go through 



36 GENEKAL CHARACTERISTICS 

all the elegant, fashionable schools of learnmg, and complete his 
education without even a reading of the Bible, is chargeable 
with a degree of ignorance, which, if the book were only human, 
would: be a disgrace to him ; and which, if it be Divine, is both 
a disgrace and an incalculable injury. 



V. THE BIBLE IN OUR ENGLISH VERSION. 

To all these general considerations in favor of the Bible as 
the basis of education, there is one more to be added which 
ought to have special weight with every individual who claims 
the English as his mother tongue, or loves to read that tongue 
in its noblest utterances of thought and feeling. It is the cir- 
cumstance, that we possess a translation of it, which, simply 
as an English book, is as classical to our language as it is faith- 
ful and true to the original. This grand old English Bible, now 
crowned with the honors of nearly two hundred and fifty years, 
opened eveniog and morning to kindle the devotions of the mil- 
lions that wspeak our tongue, has come down to us with every 
quality and attribute that could make any book a ^' well of Eng- 
lish undefiled.'' Two centuries and a half of profound biblical 
study, and of advancing criticism in every walk of science and 
literature, while revealing some minor inaccuracies as to the let- 
ter, have brought to light no essential defect or error as to the 
spirit and tenor of this wonderful version ; on the contrary, 
they have but served to exalt it the more in the eyes of the 
scholar, the more to enshrine it in the reverential and admiring 
affections of the people. 

It is a matter of the very highest importance to English 
literature, and it ought to be a cause of profound gratitude to 



OF THE BIBLE. 37 

God, that this glorious old version was made precisely when it 
was, and by just those men who took it in hand. The forty- 
seven aged, pious, and profoundly learned men, who, after years 
of united labor, under the direction, but not dictation of King 
James, published this version in 1611, only completed a work 
which had been going on for centuries. There had been five 
preceding translations into English, all of which had prepared 
the way for this more accurate version under the royal author- 
ity. The work of translation had, in fact, been commenced by 
John Wickhffe, the morning star of the Eeformation, two hun- 
dred and fifty years before ; and, in spite of all opposition, both 
in England and on the continent, it had gone steadily onward 
through the successive versions of Tyndale, Coverdale, the 
Geneva Bible, and that of the Bishops, until it reached its 
memorable consummation in the present translation. The learn- 
ed John Selden, who was a contemporary of these translators, 
remarks, that '' the English translation of the Bible is the best 
translation in the v/orld, and gives the sense of the original 
best.'' That early opinion has been confirmed by the almost 
unanimous judgment of posterity ; and, in that judgment, the 
great body of the church, wherever the English tongue is spoken, 
has rested without desiring any further change. 

Now, the glory of this translation, as an English classic, lies 
in the fact, that having grown with the growth and strengthened 
with the strength of our mother tongue, it reached its completion 
precisely at the time when the language itself had attained its 
noontide of excellence and vigor. The perfection of the one 
was co-existent with the full maturity of the other ; precisely as 
it had been with the Greek tongue and the old Septuagint. 
When our translation was made, the ao-e of Addison, with its 
polish and graceful diction, had not come. But precisely that 



38 GENERAL CHAEACTESISTICS 

age of masculine strength, of graphic diction, of sublime thought, 
of terse idiomatic expression, had come, which best prepared our 
language to give utterance to the revelations of God. No 
period before could have done it so well ; and certainly none 
since. It is enough to say that it was the age of Lord Bacon 
and of Shakspeare. The father of the inductive philosophy, 
and the greatest name in the annals of dramatic hterature, were 
the contemporaries of these translators of the Bible ; and they 
were soon followed by Milton, Locke, and Sir Isaac Newton. 
If there are any five names in human history, capable of stamp- 
ing the seal of immortality upon a nation's literature, they are 
the five great classic names just mentioned. But it was in the 
very midst of these and others like them, some going before, and 
some coming after — it was in the very words, and idioms, and 
images of power and beauty, w^herewith they clothed their own 
immortal thoughts, that our present translation of the Bible 
first stood forth complete before the world — at once a product 
and a monument of the scholarship of that remarkable age. 

It was certainly a most signal illustration of the gracious, 
over-ruling Providence of God, that the time should be so auspi- 
cious, and the hands so competent for the accomplishment of so 
great a work. We behold here a fitness of things precisely 
akin to that which existed when the Greek language was per- 
mitted to attain its greatest perfection at home, in the hands of 
Athenian sages, poets, and orators, and its widest dominion 
abroad, through the conquests of Alexander the Great, before 
it became a recipient of the Word of God in the Septuagint 
translation. Of all times in the history of the Greek tongue 
that was the best for such a translation. But, speaking after 
the manner of men, we scarcely can say which was the greater 
gainer, the Bible or the English language, in having our trans- 



OF THE BIBLE. 39 

lation made when it was. Certainly it was for both, the fittest 
time that could be chosen in the history of our language. It 
was undoubtedly an admirable thing for the religion of the Bible, 
that this robust Anglo-Saxon sjDeech, w^ith all its borrowed 
wealth from other tongues, should be suffered first to reach its 
full maturity of strength and beauty under the guiding hands of 
such masters as Spenser and Shakspeare, Ben Jonson and Sir 
Philip Sidney ; and then, before it had lost one jot or tittle of 
its glory, should be so incorporated and enshrined in the living 
Word of God, that while the speech lives the book must live, 
because the book is itself the noblest utterance of the speech. 
On the other hand, how fortunate for the language itself, and 
for all Enghsh literature, that it should have such a canoniza- 
tion in the Bible and such a book in which to be canonized ; 
that the noble, majestic dialect in which Shakspeare and Bacon 
uttered their thoughts, and which Milton, Locke, and Newton 
soon after learned at school, has been perpetuated and immor- 
talized by being fast-anchored to the oracles of God ! The 
benefit has thus been mutual ; and it is immense. By means 
of this inimitable translation, the terse and mighty diction of 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has been transmitted to 
posterity, and is at this hour the familiar household dialect of 
the Anglo-Saxon race. But for the English Bible, who can tell 
us how much of this diction would not now be hopelessly obso- 
lete ? By means of this book — the only book read and revered 
by all men — our English language has had the rare good for- 
tune to daguerreotype itself at the highest perfection, and to 
transmit the likeness to all generations. For whilst it has been, 
and still is, endlessly diversified and enriched by contributions 
from without, as for example in the word which we have just 
used — a word derived from recent art — still the grand outlines^ 



40 GENEEAL CHARACTERISTICS 

the old idioms, the ground-forms, remain unchanged and in- 
violate. By this book they are placed beyond the possibility 
of deterioration or desuetude. While the language is constantly 
gaining, it can never lose anything of its original classic power 
so long as this Bible of its palmiest days is read by the people ; 
because this book is the connecting link between the present 
and the past, the spoken and the written language. 

It is the nature and the imperfection of all spoken languages 
to be perpetually changing. The new is ever crowding out the 
old, unless there be some influence to counteract it. The words 
of one century become obsolete in another. Mere change is no 
improvement, unless while we gain the new we can also retain 
the old. But this, the English Bible has enabled our language 
to do in a remarkable degree — to hold fast the old while grasp- 
ing the new treasure. Like Marshall Ney to the French army, 
it has been the rear-guard of the grand army of Anglo-Saxon 
progress. Without retarding its march, it has covered the rear 
with glory, and prevented loss or damage there. This book, 
universally read as it is, and must be, by a Protestant people, 
renders it impossible that words thus enshrined in the daily 
thoughts of the people should ever grow obsolete. In fact, 
very few have ever become obsolete ; and even these are in 
portions seldom read. With these rare exceptions, the Scrip- 
tures of this authorized version, now, after the lapse of two 
centuries and a half, are as intelligible to the people as they 
were at the beginning. And so this version has done for our 
language, what no other influence under heaven could have 
done — it has been an ark of safety which has borne it across 
the wide abyss of centuries, and is still bearing it gloriously 
adown the current of ages. As long as this translation stands 
in its integrity, to be read in the closets and around the family 



OF THE BIBLE. 41 

altars of the English race, just so long must the words in which 
Shakspeare and Milton sang, in which Bacon, Locke, and New- 
ton expounded the laws of the universe, live as the familiar 
spoken words of the people. 

Now, in these days of fast progress, there may be some per- 
sons so fond of novelty, so disposed to ignore or disparage all 
the greatness of the past, that they can see no advantage in 
having our classic English perpetuated from generation to gen- 
eration. But we are not of that number, and trust the reader 
of these pages is not. There are some things in the world which 
we love all the better because they are ancient. Of these, reli- 
gion is one. Literature is another. Like old and tried friends 
they are not to be cast aside for strangers and upstarts. We 
would have our children grow up familiar with the massive old 
dialect of Milton, rather than run the risk of getting something 
worse by the fancied improvements of the last novel-writer or 
the morning newspaper. Would it not be a glorious thing even 
for young Italy, if the descendants of the ancient Eomans had 
never ceased to speak the dialect of Cicero and Caesar ? Would 
not modern Greece be a more glorious land to-day, if her gene- 
rations had preserved inviolate the mother tongue of Plato and 
Demosthenes ; if there had been some great sacred book of the 
people to bind the spoken to the written language ? In our 
estimation, among the manifold advantages flowing from this 
time-honored, universally-read English Bible, it is far from being 
the least, that it has stood as an impregnable bulwark for the 
classic purity of the English tongue, resisting all the encroach- 
ments of needless innovation and holding it to its ancient land- 
marks, without hindering its growth or improvement. A similiar 
influence has been exerted upon the German language by the 
noble Bible of Luther. 



4:2 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

Doubtless the greatest of all advantages, is the influence 
which it has everywhere and unceasingly exerted in favor of 
the high interests of the Protestant religion. This influence 
has been incalculable ; and it is increasing every day, with the 
growing age of the book and the ever-widening sphere of its 
circulation. Dr. Newman, the Papist, though intending it for a 
different purpose, has paid a just tribute to the power and ex- 
cellence of our version in the following profound and beautiful 
words : '* Who shall say, that the uncommon beauty and mar- 
vellous English of the Protestant Bible is not one of the strong- 
holds of heresy in this country ? It lives in the ear like a music 
that can never be forgotten — like the sound of church-bells 
which the convert hardly knows how he can forego. Its felici- 
ties often seem to be almost things rather than words. It is 
part of the national mind, and the anchor of the national seri- 
ousness. The memory of the dead passes into it. The potent 
traditions of childhood are stereotyped in its verses. The 
power of all the griefs and trials of man is hidden beneath its 
words. It is the representative of his best moments ; and all 
that there has been about him of soft and gentle, of pure, and 
penitent, and good, speaks to him forever out of his English 
Bible. It is his sacred thing which doubt has never dimmed, 
and controversy never soiled. In the length and breadth of the 
land, there is not a Protestant with one spark of religiousness 
about him, whose spiritual biography is not in his Saxon 
Bible." 

No doubt something might be gained, in the way of correct- 
ing small inaccuracies, by a new version of the Scriptures. 
But infinitely more would be lost by destroying that prestige of 
a long and glorious past which the English Bible now enjoys — by 
breaking that peculiar charm both to the ear and the heart 



I 



OF THE BIBLE. 43 

which the countless millions of its readers have all felt To 
break up all these hallowed associations, to unsettle the public 
confidence in that *' old family Bible which lies on the stand/'^ 
to substitute some new and modernized Bible in its stead, cut 
and fashioned according to the latest style of criticism — all this, 
if it could be done, as we think it never can, and hope it never 
may, w^ould be an unmitigated calamity to the church and 
the world. It would be to lose all that is precious and impres- 
sive in the fact, that the sacred book of the people is the great 
standard classic of the people's literature. It would be to in- 
cur all that is evil in cutting a nation's literature loose from its 
ancient moorings, and sending it adrift upon the ocean of end- 
less change. 

On this point we respond most heartily to the remarks of an 
eloquent speaker. Dr. Storrs, at a late anniversary of the Amer- 
ican Bible Society. *' This old version,'' said he, '* is hallowed 
with such memories as scarcely belong to another human work. 
It stretches back one of its far-reaching roots to the very cell 
of Bede. It strikes down another beneath the burnt ashes of 
Wickliffe. It sends another under the funeral pile of Tyndale. 
It twists another around the stake w^here Cranmer was burned. 
Give up this version for a trim and varnished new one ? Nay 
verily ! Those broad contorted arms have wrestled with the 
fierce w^inds of opinion for two hundred years ! The sweet 
birds of heaven have loved to come and sing among them ; and 
they sing there still ! Their leaves are leaves of life and heal- 
ing ! There is not a text pendent upon those boughs but has 
the stuff of religions and literatures in it ! They have given of 
their ribbed strength to every enterprise for human welfare ! 
Give up this version ? It is our American inheritance ! It came 
over in the Mayflower 1 It was brought by Oglethorpe to 



L 



44 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

Georgia I It has spread across our land ! It has been the joy 
of generations to sit under its shadow 1 It will stand while the 
hills stand ! We will not give up this oak of the Ages, for any 
modern tulip tree at present 1" 



yj. ^THE BIBLE IN THE FOUR GREAT CLASSIC TONGUES. 

It is interesting to trace the history of the Word of God in 
its connection with the leading languages of civilized man. 
First, we find it, or the earlier part of it, in its native Hebrew, 
which was for ages the advanced guard of all human civilization. 
Next, we have it — the Old Testament nearly three centuries 
before the advent of Christ, and the New immediately after — 
in the Greek tongue, which was, for long ages more, the all-con- 
trolling language of classical antiquity. Then, again, from the 
days of Jerome, we find it in the imperial world-conquering 
Latin, which held the mastery in Europe down to the sixteenth 
century. And now, since the Reformation, w^hich left it in the 
vernacular of all the great civilized nations of Protestant 
Europe, we have it above all others, in this unparalleled English, 
which, to say the least, is the leading language of modern 
Christendom ; which is doing more than all others put together 
to spread the true gospel of God, and with it civilization, 
among the tribes and peoples of the heathen world. 

There have been four great languages, which have succes- 
sively held the foremost place in transmitting and diffusing civi- 
lization over the globe — Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English. 
And it is one of the grandest facts in the history of literature, 
that the Word of God has held the place of supremacy in each 
of them, as its sacred canonical book. Assuredly, no other reli- 



OF THE BIBLE. 45 

gious book — no book whatever — ^has ever had such a history. 
If there were no other argument for the book, this fact would 
be enough — that at the head of these four languages, it has led 
the march of civilization around the globe. 

Of two of these great Bible-transmitting languages, the 
second and third, we have seen a vivid portraiture by Coleridge, 
in the following terms : '^ Greek, the shriue of the genius of the 
old world ; as universal as our race, as individual as ourselves ; 
of infinite flexibility, of indefatigable strength, with the com- 
plication and the distinctness of nature herself ; to which 
nothing was vulgar, from which nothing was excluded ; speak- 
ing to the ear like Italian, speaking to the mind like English ; 
with words like pictures ; with words like the gossamer film of 
the summer ; at once the variety and picturesqueness of Ho- 
mer, the gloom and the intensity of JEschylus ; not compressed 
to the closest by Thucydides, not fathomed to the bottom by 
Plato, not sounding with all its thunders, nor lit up with all its 
ardors, even under the Promethean touch of Demosthenes 1 
And Latin, the voice of empire and of war, of law and of 
the state ; inferior to its half-parent and rival in the embody- 
ing of passion and in the distinguishing of thought, but equal 
to it in sustaining the measured march of history, and superior 
to it in the indignant declamation of moral satire ; stamped 
with the mark of an imperial and despotizing republic ; rigid 
in its construction, parsimonious in its synonyms ; reluctantly 
yielding to the flowery yoke of Horace, although opening glimp- 
ses of Greek-like splendor in the occasional inspirations of 
Lucretius ; proved, indeed, to the uttermost by Cicero, and by 
him found wanting ; yet majestic in its barrenness, instinct with 
the spirit of nations, and not with the passions of individuals ; 
breathing the maxims of the world, and not the tenets of the 



46 GENERAL CHARACTEEISTICS 

scliools ; one and uniform in its air and spirit, whether touched 
by the stern and haughty Sallust, by the open and discursive 
Livy, by the reserved and thoughtful Tacitus." 

If we might adopt a similar style in order to complete the 
picture of the four great languages, which have in turn become 
the depositaries and disseminators of the Word of God, we 
should describe the first of all, the stately and giant-built He- 
brew, as the most simple, the most symmetrical, and the most 
ancient of written tongues ; with letters like blocks of granite, 
with words like king's palaces, with sentences hke cities walled 
up to heaven ; though robed in the beauties of holiness, yet 
rugged as the mountains about Jerusalem ; unchangeable in its 
idiom, unyielding in its structure, unvarying and solemn in its 
tone, from generation to generation the language of truth and 
judgment, of adoration and obedience ; spoken first in the gar- 
den of Eden, or by the builders of Babel, proclaimed from hea- 
ven at Sinai, and written on tables of stone by the finger of 
Jehovah ; forever preserving its awful dignity, whether sung 
by the Seraphim above, or by the choirs of the temple, whether 
carried to the highest heaven of sublimity by Isaiah, or brought 
down to play amongst the roses of Sharon and the lilies of the 
valley by Solomon ; yet destitute alike of the elasticity of the 
Greek and the martial spirit of the Latin, unfitted to skirmish 
with the one, or charge with the other, but ever marching with 
the slow and measured tread of an ancient army of elephants. 

If such be the Hebrew, the tongue of primeval revelation, 
and Greek, the tongue of unaided genius, and Latin, the 
tongue of conquest and empire — what shall we say of this last 
and mightiest stronghold of the Bible — this English of the old 
world and the new, of all the sciences, and all the arts, and all 
the encyclopedias — this Enghsh, not of the manuscript and 



OF THE BIBLE. 47 

cloister, but of the printing press, the telegraph, the steam-car, 
spreading the light of liberty and salvation around the globe — 
this English of commerce, of education, of colonization, of the 
Missionary, the Sunday School and Bible Society — this univer- 
sal Anglo-American speech, whose dominion is wider and 
mightier than any king or conqueror could ever boast ! Strong 
in the deep foundations of those old Saxon elements, which 
underlie it as the mountain granite underlies the surface of the 
earth ; rich in the accumulated deposits and formations de- 
rived from the influx and commingling of other languages ; 
quickened into life and beauty by the constant culture of more 
than a thousand years ; breathing everywhere the energy and 
lofty spirit of the hardiest, most heroic race on the face of the 
earth ; combining, all in one, the original grandeur of the He- 
brew, the gracefulness of the Greek, and the martial might of 
the Roman tongue ; with matchless ease incorporating into it- 
self images of beauty and subhmity from every monument of 
ancient art, from every production of modern genius, from every 
discovery of science in the earth, the air, the seas and skies — 
now in prose, and now in poetry, adjusting itself to the imper- 
sonation and the utterance of every passion and every concep- 
tion of man — now bursting forth in stern and awful rebuke from 
the lips of Cromwell and the men of the Commonwealth, and 
now singing Hosannas to the pomp and circumstance of royalty 
in the writers of the Restoration — now, in the thunder-tones of 
reformers and martyrs, denouncing the wrath of God against 
an ungodly world, and now, in strains as sweet as angels use, 
whispering the gospel of peace to the hearers of Leighton and 
Flavel, Wesley and Whitfield, Cecil and Newton — now soaring 
on adventurous wing with the bard of Paradise Lost to the very 
throne of Deity, and now with the Pilgrim of Bunyan treading 



48 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

the narrow, weary way to the celestial city — now revealing to 
the bard of Avon all the depths of human passion, or painting 
with colors dipped in heaven every stone, and tree, and shrub, 
and flower, of this lower world — now like some broad and glori- 
ous river, flowing grandly through the pages of Addison and John- 
son, Hume and Gibbon, Burke and Macaulay, and now rushing 
on with resistless might through those of Chatham and Fox, and 
Junius — now rising with grace and grandeur to the high themes 
of Taylor and Tillotson, Baxter and Owen, Howe and Edwards, 
Chalmers and Eobert Hall, and now sparkling in all the 
exuberant wit of South and Swift, Sterne and Sidney Smith — 
now flaming out in the effective satire of Butler or Defoe, of 
Pope or Byron, and now breathing soft music through the mel- 
lifluous verse of Dryden, Thomson, and Goldsmith — now touch- 
ing the finest chords of human sympathy and brotherhood in 
the peculiar dialect of Eobert Burns, and now glowing more 
beautiful than the tints upon a maiden^s cheek in all the wonder- 
ful creations of Walter Scott — now condescending with Cowper 
and Wordsworth to hold familiar converse with the lowliest 
living thing, and now transcending both the majesty of Cicero 
and the fire of Demosthenes in Sheridan and Erskine, Grat- 
tan and Canning, Patrick Henry and Daniel Webster — all, 
and in all from first to last, this grand old English is the lead- 
ing language of Christendom, and is destined, ere long, as it 
makes the circuit of the earthy with our Anglo-American race 
and our Protestant Bible, to become the classic tongue of 
every heathen nation precisely as the Greek and Latin did 
to the nations of Europe. This is its manifest destiny. 



OF THE BIBLE. 49 



VII. ^THE BIBLE AS RELATED TO THE STATE AND ITS SCHOOLS. 

In order to give to this preliminary discussion a practical 
bearing, it will not be out of place to notice here an important 
subject, which, in many parts of our country, has of late deeply 
interested the public mind ; we mean the connection of the 
Bible with the common or public schools. 

We are clear in the conviction, that as the Bible ought to 
be made the basis of all education in childhood and youth, so 
the Bible, in some form or other, ought to be used in all schools, 
w^hether private or public. If it is right and proper to make 
the Bible a book of education for any children, or in any school 
whatever, it would be hard to show why children should be 
deprived of its benefits by the mere circumstance of being 
taught in a public school. There is, in fact, no logic by which 
such a difference can be maintained. Still further, if any Bible 
is to be used in such a school, this inimitable English Bible is 
entitled to that distinction. It is of this our distinguished 
American orator, Fisher Ames, said : *' Should not the Bible 
regain the place it once held as a school-book ? Its morals 
are pure, its examples captivating and noble ; and in no other 
book is there so good English, so pure and so elegant." Of 
this, the learned Adam Clark said : " Our translators have not 
only made a standard translation, but they have made their 
translation the standard of our language." As such, no school, 
no process or system of education, can be complete without 
it. 

It is manifest that the use of the Bible, as a book of educa- 
tion in these schools, is the thing which has caused such an 
array of opposition against the common school system in cer- 

3 



50 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

tain quarters. But no institution amongst us can be dearer to 
the hearts of the American people, more deeply enshrined in 
the precious memories of their forefathers, and more congenial 
to all their patriotic hopes for the future, than the common 
school — the school supported by the common fund of the peo- 
ple, and open, in common, to all the children of the people. If 
we have an institution in America, which is essentially and in- 
tensely American, in its spirit and design, in all its tendencies 
and results, combining beautifully the three great elements of re- 
publicanism — liberty, equality, fraternity — that institution is the 
common school. If there is any one efiScIent source' of influence in 
our country which is naturally calculated to heal those anti- 
pathies and animosities, that separate the rich and the poor, to 
act as a check upon those sectarian jealousies that divide us as 
Christians, and to break down those distinctions of language 
and nationality that arise from the different European races 
composing our population, so as to bind us all together in the 
bonds of a common brotherhood, it is that influence, of early, 
universal, and ceaseless operation, which goes out from the com- 
mon school. We cannot but think that the saddest day which 
could dawn on this fair land, and these glorious institutions of 
our fathers, would be that in which our common school educa- 
tion should cease, and leave the children of America to grow up 
under the unchecked influence of all those antagonisms of wealth 
and poverty, of religious sects, of political parties, and of differ- 
ent races, which now distinguish and curse the nations of Eu- 
rope. As it is, these bitter waters are, in a manner, healed 
with us at the fountain-head, by casting the salt of a common 
education, a common patriotism, and a common Christianity 
into our common schools. And that healing salt is the Bible. 
It is the common school that constitutes the hope and conserv- 



I 



OF THE BIBLE. 51 

ator of our country. And it is the Bible that makes the com- 
mon school so hopeful and conservatory. 

Now, it seems to us, that we have already pointed out the 
true ground on which the Bible is to be defended as a text-book 
of education in every school supported by the state. That 
ground is, that the Bible has other highly important claims be- 
sides those of religion ; claims, too, which fall fully within the 
province of legislation which rightfully belongs to the state, as 
a state. The Bible has lessons for the state, and lessons for 
society, as truly as it has them for the church, and for the in- 
dividual. Society and the state, as such, can no more set aside 
those lessons, than can the church and the individual. It is not 
that the state undertakes to teach religion, when it provides a 
common education for its children, and, as the best of all guar- 
anties for the education which it needs, introduces the Bible 
into its common schools. Not at all. But it is that the state 
has a mission to perform for all its citizens, and a work of edu- 
cation to do for all its children, which it is bound to attend to, 
which it can, in no wise, refuse or delegate to another, without 
repudiating the high obligation laid upon it by the God of na- 
tions. This high obligation is, to secure for all its children such 
an education, both intellectual and moral, as shall make them 
good citizens. Now, intelligence and morality, as all agree, are 
essential to good citizenship. So that if the state undertakes 
to teach any thing, it must teach morality. But there is no 
substantial morality without the sanctions of religion. God 
and a future state are as truly the basis of all moral as of all 
religious duties. In teaching morality, therefore, the state must 
teach religion, so far forth as religion is needful to morality. 
Hence, the Bible has claims to be taught in schools supported 
by the state ; just because this book, which contains our reli- 



52 GENEKAL CHARACTERISTICS 

■ 

gion, at the same time contains all the sanctions, which give force 
to moral duties. And the state can no more teach morality 
and make good citizens without the Bible, than iht church can 
make Christians without it. 

The book of God is as truly a revelation of morality for the 
state, as it is a revelation of religion for the church. Short and 
simple, then, is the chain of reasoning which binds, with all the 
force of an unanswerable logic, the Bible to the state school. 
These are its Huks ; good citizenship is the highest interest of 
the state ; but there is no good citizenship without a right edu- 
cation ; there is no right education without morality ; there is 
no sound morality without religion ; and there is no true religion 
without the Bible. So, that if the state provides any school at 
all for its children (and if it does not, it is worse than infidel), 
and seeks to inculcate that morality, which, is as needful as 
intelligence, to make good citizens, it cannot consistently exclude 
the Bible from its schools, any more than it can divorce morality 
from religion. Clearly, if it is essential to the welfare and to 
the very existence of the state, that its children should have the 
right moral training, and if they cannot obtain such training 
without religion and the Bible, the state is, in duty bound, to 
take the book along with its religion for the sake of its moral- 
ity. But why should any state wish to put asunder two things 
which God hath thus joined together in indissoluble ties ? It 
cannot be done. Religion and morality go together in the Bible, 
and they must ever stand in eternal wedlock. We are willing 
to concede that the great object of the state, in introducing the 
Bible as a text-book in the common or public school, is not to 
teach religion, but only morality and intelligence. This is 
enough for the state. We are willing, nay, we greatly prefer, 
to leave religion to be taught by its own appropriate officers. 



OF THE BIBLE. 53 

in its Divinely appointed schools — the family and the church. 
We agree that the state, as such, has no mission to teach reli- 
gion, except so far as it is essential to all good citizenship, by 
being the basis of morality, virtue, and good government. To 
the church and to the family, to the ministers of the one and 
the parents of the other, belongs the great work of teaching the 
religion of the Bible, as an institution of God, designed to pre- 
pare men for immortality. The state has nothing to do with 
the spiritual and immortal interests of man, regarded as a 
candidate for eternity. But it has much to do, aye, everything 
to do with his moral, social and political interests, regarded as 
a citizen, an inhabitant of this world. 

When the state, therefore, provides an education for its 
children, and places the Bible in their hands as a school-book, 
it is not to prepare them for eternity. It is simply and exclu- 
sively to prepare them, as citizens, for the duties of this world ; 
those duties, too, which no free state, like ours, founded on 
popular intelligence and virtue, can neglect w^ithout infinite 
peril to its own existence. Here, then, on this plain, palpable 
distinction, we rest our plea for the Bible, in the state or public 
school. Aside from its bearings on our immortal destinies, all 
experience and history have proved this to be the best book, to 
secure our temporal interests, to fortify our virtue against all 
temptation, to foster our love of liberty and social order, to 
expand our patriotism, to inspire us with a heroic moral courage, 
to ennoble our sense of honor and personal dignity, to enlarge 
our intelligence, and to form, within us, all those habits of 
industry, economy, sobriety, enterprise, and integrity, which go 
to make up individual moral character, the wealth of nations, 
and the bliss of human life. Let the state, if you please, have 
nothing to do with the child as an immortal being, and with 
the Bible as a religious system ; our argument for the common 



54 GENERAL CHAEACTEKISTICS 

school, as a state institution, and for the Bible, as its book of 
instruction, still stands in all its force ; because, as citizens, we 
can no more dispense with its influence for this world, than we 
can, as Christians, do without its hopes for the next. 



VIII. THE BIBLE THE PALLADIUM OF AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS. 

If all this is true of the state in general, with what special 
force does it apply to our own government, where all sove- 
reignty is in the hands of the people, and everything depends 
on popular virtue and intelligence ? In such a government as 
this, it is impossible to place too high an estimate upon popular 
education in the common school. There can be no work more 
important, no interest more precious, no object more worthy of 
the fostering care of the state, than the education of its children. 
If legislation is competent to anything, and fit for anything on 
earth, it is to conserve this interest, and do this work. What- 
ever else may be done, or left undone, and be the cost of this 
what it may, no state can neglect it without peril and ultimate 
ruin. Our people must be educated. The children must have 
schools. Education is vital to our existence. Our social and 
political salvation depends on it. Any policy, which overlooks 
or neglects this, is suicidal to the state's own existence. 

But we are persuaded, that the American people are fully 
awake to the importance of this great work. If there is any- 
thing, for which they are willing to pay out of their common 
funds, around which they love to rally as a common standard, 
and which, as a common heritage bequeathed by their fathers, 
they are ready to defend to the last, with united hearts and 
hands, it is education in the common school. 

We are persuaded, that the common school, in a manner the 



OF THE BIBLE. 55 

germ and nucleus of our free institutions, so early adopted, so 
uniyersallj received, so beneficial in all its results, so congenial 
to our fundamental laws, and so identified with all the feelings, 
and habits, of the common peoiDle, is the last thing on earth 
which they would ever consent to surrender. And if any per- 
sons in our land, misled by their European education and pre- 
judices, and moved by the direction of a foreign hierarchy, have 
ever imagined, that our admirable common school system, with 
all its prestige of a glorious origin and a blessed success, could 
be broken down and supplanted, we have only to say, that they 
have mistaken the spirit of the times and of the country in 
which they live. Attempt to break down our common schools ! 
And who shall attempt it ? No man, endowed with the heart 
of a patriot, or the wisdom of a statesman, can ever regard 
such an attempt but with abhorrence and execration. When- 
ever, wherever, and by whomsoever made, it must and will be 
covered with a signal and ignominious defeat, as it has been 
already. Ten thousand voices shall be lifted with indignation 
against it. 

Ttie American people love a free education, as they love the 
land that gave them birth, and will stand by the common school. 
They will look upon opposition to this cherished institution of 
their country, from whatever quarter, as sacrilegious and trai- 
torous to the best interests of the country. Whatever deeds 
of darkness, and heaven-daring oppression, may be perpetrated 
in the Old World, the fires of civil and religious liberty are not 
to be extinguished, nor the progress of civilization arrested, nor 
the sun-dial of the world reversed, nor the common schools of 
America sacrificed, at the dictation of any foreign despot, or 
the interference of any old or new order of Jesuits. No I the 
sovereign people know their rights, and their interests, and dare 



66 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

maintain them. It was amongst the first lessons of their child- 
hood, learned at the common school, and from the Bible ; and 
it will be one of the last vfhich thej can ever forget. The com- 
mon school system must and will stand so long as our people 
remain worthy of their common ancestry. Sooner may you stop 
the tranquil but resistless flow of our mighty rivers, or dethrone 
Dur monarch mountains from their seats, than break down the 
common school system of America. By all the lessons of their 
past history, our countrymen have been taught to look upon 
their common school system as the great fountain of their 
national glory, and the most important safeguard of their liber- 
ties. And even so, what the common school is to the country, 
the Bible is to the common school — its peculiar glory, its con- 
servator, its heaven-derived Palladium. But wiser and more 
cautious than the ancient Trojans, an enlightened people will 
take care, that no enemy at home or abroad, no domestic traitor 
or wily foreign foe, shall steal away their Palladium. They 
will keep the schoolmaster at work in the land ; and they will 
keep the Bible at work in the school. And they will thus, upon 
the broad basis of popular intelligence and virtue, build a monu- 
ment of national glory, which shall stand to the latest posterity ; 
a monument whose apex shall reach the skies, and whose inscrip- 
tions all nations shall read and admire — on one side, ^^ Let there 
be light," and on the other, ^'Esto Perpetua." 

Yes, in the American common school system, now adopted 
and in successful operation in almost every State of our Union, 
from ocean to ocean, we rejoice, as in a great national institu- 
tion — one of the earliest, as it is the most hopeful of all our 
institutions. We cling to it as the richest legacy of our fathers, 
the most sacred and inalienable birthright of our children. 
We rejoice, in its past success, its present favor with our people, 



OF THE BIBLE. 57 

and its promise of future good. We glory in its republicanism, 
its nationality, its catholicity, its entire exemption from a nar- 
row partisan and sectarian character. We love it, because it 
is thoroughly and intensely American. It is free like the air 
we breathe, large like the rivers, lakes and mountains where we 
dwell, radiant with light and bountiful with blessed influences, 
like the all-surrounding skies that bend in beauty over our land. 
It suits our country. It suits the genius of our people. They 
love it, and are willing to pay for its support. There is no tax 
which they pay so willingly as that for education ; and they 
would not only submit, but seek to be taxed, even to a ten-fold 
degree, rather than give up the common school. 

Most heartily, then, do we rejoice in the decision and unani- 
mity with which our people, both native and adopted, have 
risen up in resistance against the recent outrageous attempts, 
which have been made, in several of our leading States and 
cities, to divide and segregate to sectarian purposes, the com- 
mon school fund of the country. We cannot too highly ap- 
plaud the noble sentiments of the Legislature of New York, 
in their refusal to lift so much as a finger against their common 
school system, by fractionizing its funds for the benefit of the 
Church of Eome or any other church. Truly and nobly do 
they say : *' From its inception down to the present day, in 
every stage of its progress, amid the storm and tempests that 
have attended the mutations of political parties ; amid the ran- 
cor of theological controversy, and the heat of religious ex- 
citements, our common school system has moved quietly and 
majestically along from the smallest beginnings to its present 
magnificent proportions, under the guidance of our pure and 
patriotic statesmen, without participating in, or ministering to, 
the peculiarities of any party or sect ; its blessings falling upon 



•^ 



58 GENERAL CHAKACTERISTIC3 

the children and the youth of the whole state, like the dew of 
heaven, upon the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the 
Catholic and the Protestant, upon every shade of religious and 
political opinion alike, without prejudice and without partial- 
ity/' 

IX. ^THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH OF ROME. 

Now it cannot be concealed, that all this opposition to the 
Bible in our schools, and to the common school system itself, on 
account of the Bible, springs from certain peculiar dogmas of 
the Roman Catholic Church ; which dogmas we hold to be as un- 
scriptural as they are unreasonable and unpatriotic. We do not 
intend to discuss them now. But is it not clear to the plainest un- 
derstanding, that the Church of Rome must feel herself to be in 
antagonism with the word of God, and condemned by the word 
God, when she fears to give that word to the people, and with 
the most persistent determination, seeks to exclude our glorious 
old common version from the common schools of the country ; 
nay, to exclude any and every version of it, even from her own 
children ? If she is not afraid of the light, why does she strive 
to keep the popular mind in darkness ? If she is not afraid that 
the ** sincere milk of the word " will nourish her children and 
ours, to thoughts of religious liberty incompatible with her 
claims, why does she withhold that milk from the lambs of the 
flock ? If she feels confident of her infallibility and power, and 
in that consciousness has so little to fear from Protestantism, 
why is she in such dread of a free and open Bible ? Why not 
let the Bible take its wav, as hitherto, in this free land ? If 
she is right, will not a free and open Bible advance her claims 
the more the people understand it ? If she is wrong, had she 



OF THE BIBLE. 59 

not better let the Bible put her right ? If she is afraid that 
the people will find Protestanism in our good old English Bible, 
or even in her Douaj Bible, can't she make a Bible, or at least 
a translation of it, which she is not afraid to give to the peo- 
ple and to her own children ? Half a loaf is better than no 
bread. The most imperfect translation is better than no Bible ; 
even as Romanism itself is better than no religion. 

If we could see the Church of Rome circulating any sort of 
a Bible among the masses of the people, we should hail it as the 
dawn of a better day. But does not the Church of Rome hold 
the Bible to be the revealed word of God ? She does ; and 
claims to be the very channel through which it has come down 
to us. Why then should a revelation from God be locked up 
from the people, imbedded forever like a fossil in the rocks ? 
Admit that the Bible was early given to the Church of Rome 
as she claims, is it her grand mission to fossilize it under the 
mountains of her traditions on the plea of safe-keeping ? The 
pyramids of Egypt might have kept it, in a mummy case, 
just as well. She might as well contend that God has author 
ized her to bury the sun, as to hide his word in the way she 
has done it. Her steadfast unwillingness to let the people have 
the Bible in their schools, is a demonstration as strong as Holy 
Writ, that she is in direct antagonism to the will of God, and 
to the whole letter and spirit of his word. 
^ But this is not all. The determined opposition to the use of 
the Bible in the common schools of the country, is not more un- 
scriptural than it is unpatriotic and unreasonable. For what is 
the object of all this opposition ? The grand end in view, be 
it observed, is to conserve and promote the peculiar interests of 
this very peculiar church. To save this ancient church from the 
damage or the danger of being brought face to face with the 



60 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

light of God's word in the presence of lier children and of all 
men, so great a price mast be paid, so great a sacrifice must be 
made, as the breaking up of the whole system of a united or com- 
mon Christian education. Does not the highest interest of the 
whole country demand such an education ? Yes. And does not 
every statesman in America feel, that the public weal requires that 
our children should be brought tlms together into one grand uni- 
versal system of education ? Yes. How unreasonable and unpa- 
triotic, then, that one particular class of Christians, merely for 
the sake of promoting their own denominational views, should so 
far sink their country's well-being as to demand the exclusion of a 
book, without which there can be no adequate Christian educa- 
tion, or else the surrender of a system without which there can be 
no united and general education at all ! Would any Protestant 
sect thus venture to array its own peculiar ecclesiastical inter- 
ests in direct antagonism with those of the nation whose protec- 
tion it enjoys, and whose welfare it is bound to seek ? 

What is the Church of Eome, more than any other church, 
that she should claim the children of the state as her own ; and 
not only so, but demand a separate provision out of the public 
funds for her intensely sectarian and exclusive schools ? AVould 
not such a demand from any Protestant body be resisted as un- 
reasonable and unpatriotic ? Is there no patriotism in Ameri- 
can Komanism, no s^^irit of compromise, no statesmanship, no 
self-sacrifice on the altar of our common country ? Is the 
spirit of Lord Baltimore gone from its councils ? Is the illus- 
trious name of Carroll no longer a watchword for enlarged 
liberality among its members? Have American Romanists 
ceased to be patriots by becoming churchmen ? Have they 
sunk the citizen forever in the ecclesiastic ? Have they adopted 
the maxim, '' Millions for the church, but not a cent for the 



OF THE BIBLE. 61 

country T^ Is Eoiiie everything, America nothing, in their 
policy ? Have they no common interests with their Protestant 
fellow-citizens — no broad ground of humanity and religion, 
where they can stand together to teach morality and good citi- 
zenship on the basis of the revelation of God ? Why should 
this extraordinary, and as it seems to us, infatuated devotion to 
one peculiar form of worship, be made to override every other 
interest of the country, and every great object which prompts 
the state to give intelligence and virtue to its children in pub- 
lic Christian schools ! Can it be possible, that even here, in 
free, happy America, every lesson of morality, every sentiment 
of brotherhood, every bond of patriotism, nay, every great 
fundamental truth of our common Christianity, must be sacri- 
ficed upon the altar of a fierce fanatical zeal for church propa- 
gandism ? Is the state nothing, the country nothing, its educa- 
tional institutions nothing ? Is the church the only institution 
in the land whose welfare is to be consulted, whose right and 
title to the child can stand ? And has it come to this, that 
churchmen have no duties to discharge, no interests to subserve, 
but ecclesiastical duties and interests ? 

We would not willingly misrepresent the objects and aims of 
the Church of Rome ; nor would we oppose them with any 
other weapons than those of truth and reason. But her oppo- 
sition to the Bible, as the basis of education in this Christian 
land, and to the common public school system, we hold to be 
unreasonable, unpatriotic, and anti-American. There is no 
catholicity in her conduct. For what is she doing ? What is 
it but to draw an eternal barrier between the children of Pro- 
testant and Catholic, spiked and defended, from the cradle to 
the grave, by an exclusive ecclesiastical education ? What is 
it, but to pour the waters of sectarianism into all the fountains 



62 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

of life, and thus destroy all hope of an enlarged public spirit 
and patriotism ? It is a fearful responsibility which the Church 
of Rome has taken, in thus putting herself in antagonism, first 
with the word of God, and then with the progress of the age, 
and then with the great educational interest of our country. If 
this be the temper of the Church of Rome in America — this, 
the type of her patriotism — this, the character of her influence 
— this, the end and object of her existence — all men must see 
that she is utterly out of harmony with the progress of the age, 
and the spirit of our institutions. As such, she is evidently 
destined to one of tw^o things — either to lose her influence more 
and more, or to amend her ways and let the word of God pre- 
vail. 

But, perhaps you are ready to say, we have forgotten our 
profession of liberality, and entered the field of controversy. 
'Tis not so, however. We think it no illiberality to oppose 
illiberality : and that narrow^ churchism, which wages war 
against the Bible and the common school system of our coun- 
try, it is the duty of all good men to repudiate and denounce. 

These remarks, upon one of the most vital questions of our 
times, w^hich has already engaged public attention, and will 
probably engage it still more hereafter, cannot be deemed inap- 
propriate in our present argument for the Bible. If there is 
any subject which we have deeply at heart, and on which 
w^e w^ould desire to speak out, in a voice to be heard 
throughout the length and breadth of our land, it is our 
country's welfare, as connected with the common school and 
the Bible. We believe that our country's welfare, in all time 
to come, is bound up in this question. We hold the Bible to 
be the great light of education, as it is the light of the w^orld ; 
and education to be the life of our country. To exclude the 



OF THE BIBLE. 63 

Bible from education, is to exclude the soul from the body, to 
shut out the sun-light from the world. It is to exclude the word of 
God from the works of God ; the intelligence and perfection of 
God from the rational and moral creatures of God. We hold, that 
as the world now stands, destitute of any other Divine revelation, 
the Bible is essential to the education of man ; that it is utter- 
ly impossible for the human race, anywhere, to produce a noble 
development of genius or character — a really great man — with- 
out the Bible. However we may explain, or account for the 
great characters of classical antiquity, it is manifest, that the 
stamen of humanity in our times is not sufficient of itself — 
enough of its original force, given at the creation, does not re- 
main to produce a great nation, or even a single great man, with- 
out the Bible. It is manifest to every thoughtful student of the 
past, and close observer of the present, that if the Bible could 
be obliterated from Christendom, or even suppressed everywhere, 
as it now is in Papal countries, the human race would speed- 
ily go back into that barbarism from which the Bible has re- 
claimed it, and now alone saves it. Humanity, as the world 
now is, must be brought into individual contact with God, be- 
fore it is capable of receiving anything good, or doing anything 
great. And without the Bible, no such contact or intercourse be- 
tween God and man is now possible. 

We stand up, then, for the schools of the country, and for 
the Bible in the schools, just as we should do if we had no con- 
nection with any church. We love Zion, and we expect to 
labor for Zion^s welfare. But we love the country also. We 
have no interests and aims, as Christians, incompatible with the 
country's common weal. The state is ordained of God as well 
as the church. The duties, which bind us to the state as citi- 
zens and as patriots, are sacred, and form an important part 



64: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

of our reJgion. We love and advocate the cliurcli schools of 
every grade, from the parochial to the theological seminary. 
We are friendly, also, to schools supported by private enter- 
prise. Let all do what they can. There is room enough and 
work enough for all. 

But we cannot lose sight of the fact, that, w^ith all these in 
the field, there will still remain millions of children, whom no 
private, no denominational, and none but a state, or municipal 
free school, can ever reach. Whilst, therefore, as Christians, 
w^e establish, and, with all the resources within our power, sus- 
tain our own denominational institutions, we have no desire or 
intention to se<>:ref>:ate ourselves or our churches from the com- 
mon interests of our fellow-citizens, and the common schools of 
our country. No ; Protestants have a state to cherish as well 
as a church ; we are citizens and patriots, not less than Christ- 
ians. With our fellow-Christians of all evangelical orders, we 
take a wider range, w^e repudiate that narrow churchism, which 
walls itself round with a fortress of fanaticism, and wages an 
implacable war against every interest but its own ; we stand, 
where we have ever stood — and where our fathers stood — by 
the country and its institutions — its common school and its 

BIBLE. 

X. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

And now, as we shall be able to travel with you over the pages 
of this wonderful book, sketching its deversified scenes and 
characters, noting its chief points of beauty and sublimity, un- 
folding its historical, biographical, literary and scientific attrac- 
tions, w^e trust you wtU bear in mind one thing : and that is, we 
must not expect to understand everything, nor to find everything 



OF THE BIBLE. 65 

beautiful and sublime, any more than we do in the world of 
nature. The world is worth seeing, and worth travelling over, 
although it may not be all attractive, or equally instructive. 
And so it is with the Bible. Let us ponder the striking and 
appropriate remarks of McCheyne : 

*' He would be a sorry student of this world who shonld forever 
confine his gaze to the fruitful fields and well-watered gardens 
of this cultivated earth. He could have no true idea of what 
the world was, unless he had stood upon the rocks of our moun- 
tains, and seen the bleak muirs and mosses of our barren land ; 
unless he had paced the quarter-deck, when the vessel was out of 
sight of land, and seen the waste of waters without any shore 
upon the horizon. 

*' Just so, he would be a sorry student of the Bible who 

^ would not know all that God has inspired ; who would not ex- 
amine into the most barren chapters, to collect the good for 
which they were intended ; who would not strive to understand 
all the bloody battles which are chronicled, that he might find 
bread out of the eater and honey out of the lion.'' 

We must also bear in mind another thing, if we would 
rightly appreciate the Bible ; and that is the remarkable man- 

^ ner in which its utterances contain the undeveloped elements of 
all subsequent progress, even as the nut contains the kernel, or 
the seed the germ of life. This is one of the clearest marks of 
its Divine inspiration. There is everywhere a wisdom, wider 
and deeper than the words seem at first to convey — a wisdom 
often profound in exact proportion to the simplicity of the 
words. This is strikingly illustrated in all the New Testament 
writers ; but especially in the words of Christ, of whom in this, 
as in all other respects, it was most true, that ^' never man 
spake like this man." Says the learned Neander : " Jesus 



66 GENERAL CHAKACTEEISTICS 

would not have been Son of God and Son of Man, had not his 
words, like his works, with all their adaption to the circum- 
stances of the times, contained some things that are inexplicable 
— had they not borne concealed within them the germ of an 
infinite development, reserved for future ages to unfold. It is 
this feature — and all the evangelists concur in their representa 
tions of it — which distinguishes Christ from all other teach- 
ers of men. Advance as they may, they can never reach 
him." 

Indeed this profound, and far-reaching wisdom, which antici- 
pates all subsequent advancement, and reveals a mind in har- 
mony with truth and nature, is the truest test by which we can 
measure the greatness of our fellow-men. Lord Bacon could 
confidently appeal to the future and calmly commend his writ- 
ings to the judgment of posterity. John Milton could do the 
same, not fearing that the world would suffer his immortal verse 
to die. The sententious wisdom of Shakspeare, not less than his 
dramatic genius, has made his utterances now for centuries the 
familiar household words of all who speak the English tongue 
The same wisdom may be seen in Burke, in Dr. Johnson, in our 
own Franklin and Webster, indeed in all great thinkers. Liv- 
ing not alone for one age or generation, they are often in 
advance of their times, and are enabled so to speak and write 
that their words become the chosen vehicles of thought for all 
other men. But, in this respect, how do all the great master- 
minds of ancient and modern times fall into the background 
compared with Christ and the sacred writers I From Socrates 
and Plato to the present hour, many memorable sayings have 
been uttered, many eloquent passages recorded, which can never 
die. But where shall we find words so pregnant with meaning, 
and so incorporated into the thoughts of other men, as those 



OF THE BIBLE. 67 

brief words of the Prayer, the Parables, the Conversations, and 
the public Discourses, of Jesus Christ ? 

Amongst all the memc^^able things spoken by Napoleon 
Bonaparte, none is, perhaps, more remarkable than the follow- 
ing tribute to the gospel of Christ, given in a conversation with 
General Bertrand at St. Helena : '^ The gospel possesses a 
secret virtue of indescribable efficacy, a warmth which influences 
the understanding and softens the heart ; in meditating upon it 
you feel as you do in contemplating the heavens. The gospel 
is more than a book ; it is a living thing, active, powerful, 
overcoming every obstacle in its way. See, upon this table, 
this book of books (and here the Emperor touched it reve- 
rently) ; I never cease reading it, and always with new delight. 
Christ never hesitates, never varies in his instructions, and the 
least of his assertions is stamped with a sincerity and a depth, 
which captivate the ignorant and the learned if they give it 
their attention.^' 

If such words of praise from the world's most wonderful man 
be deemed worthy of attention, how much more the words them- 
selves whose divine attractions he seemed to feel ! 



68 POETRY AND THE BABDS 



CHAPTER IL 

POETRY AND THE BARDS OF THE BIBLE. 

Nature and Uses of Poetry in the Bible — Difference between Hebrew Prose and Poetry 
— Style of Hebrew Poetry, Parallelism — Spirit* of Hebrew Poetry— Departments of 
Hebrew Poetry — Influence of Hebrew Poetry— Writers of Poetry in the Bible — The 
Seven Greater Bards — The Argument from Poetry — Concluding Remarks. 

I. THE NATURE AND USES OF POETRY IN THE BIBLE. 

To a mind capable of appreciating the sublime and the 
beautiful, one of the highest literary attractions which the Bible 
presents, is its poetry. And as all educated persons are pre- 
sumed to have a taste sufficiently cultivated to admire what is 
grand or beautiful, both in nature and in art, we could not 
easily find a theme, in the whole circle of sacred literature, 
whose announcement ought to be more popular and inviting 
than this — The Poetry and the Bards of the Bible. 

Poetry is the highest style of human speech ; just as speech 
is the noblest vehicle of thought and feeling. Poetry is the 
lanQ:ua2:e of human nature when it has found the sublime and 
beautiful — and not only found, but felt it, and sought to em- 
body and express in numbers, those swelling conceptions which 
are too big for common words. It is the language of the soul, 
by which it seeks to rise above itself, to hold sympathetic and 
congenial brotherhood with all that is true and great, all that 



OF THE BIBLE. 69 

IS lovely and good in tlie universe around. It is the utterance 
of mortal man, when he feels the most immortal — when stand- 
ing with his feet upon fields of living green, his eyes upon the 
blue fields of ether, he seeks to tell to his companions, on the 
earth and in the heavens, what he sees and what he feels — 
what worlds of joy, what visions of hope. It is the royal 
speech of high-born genius, striving to make known to others, 
in " thoughts that breathe and words that burn," its own dis- 
covery and appreciation of the infinite, the eternal, the Divine. 
Hence poetry, in its highest style, is ever the language of the 
emotions and of the imagination — the sublime utterance of the 
heart's truest best emotions, when quickened into life by the 
imagination, and borne away on winged words, to find a con- 
genial home and resting-place with whatsoever is most grand 
and beautiful in the universe. 

" As imagination bodies forth 
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing, 
A local habitation and a name." 

So sings the bard of Avon ; and no one ever illustrated more 
strikingly than himself, the great truth of which he sings. If 
then, the plastic pen cf poesy, thus wielded by the creative 
power of imagination, can do so much, even for '^ airy nothing," 
what, think you, might it not do for the grand realities of life — 
the substantial, unfading, eternal verities of nature, man and 
God? 

Is it any wonder that when the Almighty had purposed 
to make a revelation to his children of things which they 
did not and could not know without it, of things relating to 
himself and to the eternal interests of the soul, such as truth 



70 POETEY AND THE BARDS 

and virtue, life and death, heaven and hell, bliss and woe — and 
when it was determined that this revelation should be delivered 
by human tongues, recorded in a book and handed down for 
the reading of all generations to the end of time — is it any 
wonder, that holy men of old, speaking as they were moved by 
the Divine spirit, should speak on such themes in the sublimest 
language known to man — even the impassioned, universal, 
imperishable language of poesy ? Indeed it would have been 
strange, had it been otherwise — strange if the book of God, had 
not been clothed in the brilliant burning words and images of 
heaven-born poetry : for if human language in any form is of 
Divine origin, who can doubt that the art of poetry, at the 
fountain-head, is Divine ? Accordingly we find this most an- 
cient of all books full of poetry ; nay more, we find its very 
prose, where there are no poetic forms or numbers, often im- 
pregnated with a glowing poetic spirit, and adorned with the 
drapery of beautiful poetic images. 

If you will examine the Bible by any just criterion as to the 
nature of prose and poetry, you will soon find that the Old 
Testament naturally falls under two grand divisions, in regard 
to its style. The first, embracing all the historical books, and 
extending from Genesis to the close of Esther, is written in 
narrative prose, with occasional odes and minor poems, ranging 
from a verse to a chapter in length, interwoven with the his- 
tory, like jewels of precious stone in a coronal of gold. The 
second, reaching from Job to Malachi, and embracing all the 
writings of Job, David, Solomon and the prophets, is genuine 
poetry, both in its spirit and its style, with occasional pieces of 
historical prose, ranging from a verse to a few chapters in 
length, and interspersed through the whole, like the walks and 
borders in a garden of flowers — being thrown in for explana- 



OF THE BIBLE. 71 

tion, as these are for convenience. Thus we have about as much 
narrative prose sprinkled over the poetical department, as there 
is of poetry in the historical department. And you will fiad, upon 
examination and comparison, that the division of poetry com- 
prises more than one third of the Old Testament Scriptures. 

As for the New Testament, it is for the most part historical 
and epistolary. Accordingly it is all written in a prosaic style, 
with the single exception of the Apocalypse, which being a 
prophetic and somewhat allegorical book, has all the sentiment 
and imagery of poetry, without the form of rhythm. The 
narrative and epistolary parts of the New Testament, however, 
like the prose division of the Old, are interspersed, though 
somewhat more sparsely, with occasional odes, and short poetic 
sentences — ^^ disjecta membra poetae !^^ 

Now, lest any one should doubt the propriety of calling so 
large a portion of the Bible poetry, let us take a single passage 
from the prophetical books, as an illustration. Perhaps you 
have often read the fourth chapter of Jeremiah, without any 
thought that you were reading poetry. But tell us, what poet 
ever gave a more fearful and vivid picture of utter desolation, 
than the prophet has given of the land of Judah in the follow- 
ing words, taken just as they stand in our English version : 

" I beheld the earth, and lo ! it was without form and void I 

And the heavens, and they had no light ! 
I beheld the mountains, and lo ! they trembled ! 

And all the hills moved lightly ! 
I beheld, and lo ! there was no man ! 

And all the birds of the heavens were fled ! 
I beheld, and lo ! the fruitful place was a wilderness ! 

And all the cities thereof were broken down 
At the presence of the Lord 
And by his fierce anger." 



72 POETRY AND THE BAKDS 

This is only a small part of the description, but if this is not 
poetry of the highest order, then where will you find poetry, 
and what will you say constitutes a title to the name of poetry? 
You will accordingly find the prophetical books mostly poeti- 
cal : and even in the historical books, you will find many 
occasional pieces of true poetry. Do you ask for some examples 
of these scattered members of the poem — these rare jewels of 
the coronal ? In the New Testament, the most noted examples 
are the joyful odes of Elizabeth, Mary, and Zacharias on the 
occasion of our Saviour^s approaching advent, the song of the 
angels at his birth, and that sublime strain of the Baptist from 
the wilderness, which seemed to echo, as from the long silent 
harps of the ancient prophets. In the Old Testament, you will 
find such examples, as David^s dirge over Jonathan and Saul, 
and his lament for Absalom, Deborah's martial hymn of victory, 
Hannah's beautiful song of thanksgiving for Samuel, the ode 
of deliverance and triumph at the Red Sea, the farewell address 
of Moses to Israel on the borders of the promised land. You 
will find the elements of poetry in such brief phrases as this — 
*'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands,'' 
or this — ^'Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord ;" or 
still earlier in such as this — *' Let there be light, and there was 
light." This last, which was pronounced by Longinus, the 
celebrated critic of Greece, to be one of the finest specimens 
of the sublime, we may safely claim as the most ancient line of 
poetry in the world : and certainly we do not know of any 
modern line, more pregnant with thought or beauty. Well 
might the patriarch of TJz, long afterwards, respond to this first 
1 ivine utterance of poesy, as with a kindred spirit, saying — 

" Then the morningstars sang together, 
And all the sons of God shouted for joy." 



OF THE BIBLE. 73 

If you ask, then, why poetry is employed in the Bible, we 
answer, because it is the natural and congenial language of the 
grand and glorious truths which it is the purpose of the Bible 
to reveal to us. We answer furthermore, it is in order to make 
the book the more attractive. The word of God is clothed in 
beauty, for the same reason that his works are beautiful. Just 
as the sky is blue, and the foliage green, and ^' the light, sweet 
to the eye," so does the Bible possess a universal and perpetual 
title to our admiration, by the attractiveness of its Divine 
poesy. 

II. — DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PROSE AND POETRY OF THE 

BIBLE. 

But you may be ready to say, we sde no distinction, at least, 
no marked distinction, between the poetry of the Bible and its 
prose — it seems to be all alike, all written in the same un- 
measured prosaic form. You must, however, bear in mind, that 
it is solely through the medium of a prose translation, we now 
become acquainted with the poetry of the Bible. Even the few 
scholars who have read it in the original, had first learned to 
read it in a prose translation-. Our English translators were 
great scholars, but they were not poets ; and they made no 
attempt to preserve anything of the poetic rhythm of the original 
Hebrew. They would probably have failed, had the attempt 
been made. They might have marred the beauty of the Hebrew 
muse, and done damage, to the exact meaning of the sacred 
word, in trying to transfer it to a poetic English version. But 
had they, with all their learning and piety, possessed the poetic 
genius of Milton or Cowper, or even the nice poetic taste of 
Herder and Bishop Lowth, our present translation of Job, David 

4 



74 POETRY AND THE BARDS 

Solomon, and the prophets, would doubtless have retained much 
more of the original spirit and style of poetry. 

Even as it is, notwithstanding the change from an ancient to 
a modern dress, and from an oriental to a western tongue, it is 
remarkable, that so much of the original fire of the Hebrew 
muse should still shine forth everywhere in our admirable prose 
translation. There is no stronger proof of the indestructible 
character of the poetry of the Bible, and oT its inherent sublim- 
ity and beauty, than this fact, that through all the disadvan- 
tages and disguises of a literal prose translation, many passages 
of the poetical books, and nearly all the Psalms, still retain the 
spirit, and rhythm, and very music of the bard. Think of read- 
ing any other book of poetry under these circumstances ; think 
of reading Homer and Yirgil, Milton and Shakspeare reduced 
down to a plain prose translation in another tongue. Could 
any other authors in the world, have stood such a disrobing as 
this — such a transmigration to foreign lands, and investiture in 
foreign costumes, and have come off half so well as the bards 
of the Bible have ? Their poems have been translated from a 
southern to a northern clime, from an eastern to a western 
world, have lived through all the winters of thirty or forty cen- 
turies, and though still incased within the uncongenial frame- 
work of a rigid prose version, are still poems, unsurpassed in 
power or pathos by any others in the world. 

Why is this ? The reason is plain enough. It is because the 
living power of Bible poetry was in the thought more than in 
the outward form ; in the substance of nature more than in the 
shadow of art ; in the kernel of truth and not in the shell of 
mere words. It could pass through the crucible of a prose 
translation, and a strange tongue, undimmed of its lustre, be 
cause there was a soul in it — a living spirit of truth and beauty 



OF THE BIBLE. 75 

in all its words and symbols — the very breath of heaven and 
inspiration of the Almighty. In all the bards of the Bible, 
from Moses to David, and from David to John, there was ge- 
nius, the loftiest flight of sanctified human genius ; but then it 
must never be forgotten, that in them all there was something 
more than genius — there was the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 
Now that every one may see how marked is the distinction, 
between the poetry of the Bible and its prose, even in our Eng- 
lish version, let us select an example from the book of Job, 
which has often been referred to, and which exhibits one of 
these sudden and striking transitions. The introductory part of 
thcrbook, contained in its first and second chapters, is written 
in -a plain narrative style and closes with the second verse of 
the third chapter, in the following w^ords — '^ So they sat down 
with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and 
none spake a word unto him : for they saw that his grief war 
great. After this Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. 
And Job spake and said f' 

f " Let the day perish wherein I was born 

And the night in which it was said, * there is a man child conceived. 

Let that day be darkness : 

Let not God regard it from above, 

Neither let the hght shine upon it. 

Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it : ' 

Let a cloud dwell upon it ; 

Let the blackness of the day terrify it. 

As for that night, let darkness seize upon it ; 

Let it not be joined unto the days of the year; 

Let it not come into the number of the months. 

Lo ! let that night be solitary ; 

Let no joyful voice come therein. 

Let them curse it, that curse the day, 

Who are ready to raise up their mourning. 



76 POETRY AND THE BARDS 

Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark ; 

Let it look for light, but have none ; 

Neither let it see the dawning of the day. 

Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, 

Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes." 

In this passage, down to the point at which Job begins to 
speak, the language flows on in simple narrative, as it has done 
from the opening sentence of the book, never rising above the 
common prose level ; and no one could ever mistake it for 
poetry. But when Job speaks, how changed is the style in 
which he pours out the bitter anguish of his soul I Who could 
ever mistake that remarkable curse for mere prose ? Who, 
that has a heart, do^s not feel that there is something in the 
tone, and sentiment, and imagery and rhythm of these burning 
words, far above any ordinary jDrose writing .? If you will ex- 
amine Herder^s translation of the passage, the contrast wil 
appear still more striking than it does in our version. This, 
then, is enough to illustrate what kind of poetry the Bible con- 
tains, and to show how it rises and swells, with great thoughts 
and great emotions, above the ordinary level of historical nar- 
rative on the one hand, whilst on the other, there is a play of 
the imagination in its metaphors, and a stately correspondence 
and harmony in its sentences, placing it on a different ground 
altogether from even the most impassioned and eloquent decla- 
matory prose. It is as far removed from anything that can 
rightfully be called oratory, as it is from simple narrative. 

Who, for instance, can read a passage like this from the 
Psalms, without feeling that it is poetry ? — 

" He bowed the heavens also, and came down : 
And darkness was under his feet. 
And he rode upon a cherub and did fly: 
Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. 



OF THE BIBLE. 77 

He made darkness his secret place : 

His pavilion round about him were dark waters 

And thick clouds of the skies. 

At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, 

Hailstones and coals of fire. 

The Lord also thundered in the heavens, 

And the Highest gave his voice 

Hailstones and coals of fire. 

Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them ; 

And he shot out lightnings and discomfited them. 

Then the channels of the waters were seen, 

The foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, 

Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils." 

Or this : 

" Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? 
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? 
If I ascend up into heaven — Thou art there : 
If I make my bed in hell — behold Thou art there. 
If I take the wings of the morning, 
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea : 
Even there shall thy hand lead me, 
And thy right hand shall hold me. 
If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, 
Even the night shall be light about me. 
Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee : 
But the night shineth as the day : 
The darkness and the light are both alike to Thee." 

But perhaps you are ready to say, " How can there be poetry 
without verse ? and how can this be poetry without so much 
as the sound of poetry V^ You will say, there are no lofty 
hexameters here, like Homer's, and VirgiFs ; no majestic, measur- 
ed, tread of the blank verse, like Milton's ; no smooth-sounding 
rhyme, like Pope's ; no musical jingle of the feet, like the danc- 



78 POETRY AND THE BAUDS 

ing couplets of Burns and Bjron, Moore and Scott. True, 
indeed ; but as for all that, is there no poetry in Shakspeare ? 
The objection lies against him in many passages, almost as 
strongly as it does against the bards of the Bible. You will 
not always find the regular hexameter and exactly measured 
blank verse, the tripping rhymes, the nimble feet, and jingling 
bells of modern poetry in Shakspeare, any more than in the 
Bible. It is no unusual thing to find him sacrificing the sound 
for the sake of the sense. But you will find in him, what is 
much more essential to the existence of true poetry — you will 
find originality and concentration of thought, the inexhaustible 
imagery of creative genius, the bright winged words of an elo- 
quent tongue, and a soul fired with enthusiasm in view of the 
beauty and grandeur of universal nature. 

And all this you will find in the bards of the Bible. You 
will find every essential element of genuine poetry. The only 
element which they apjDcar to lack, is the sound : and to a 
rightly cultivated ear they do not even lack that. To say there 
is no poetry in the Bible, because there is no rhyme, no verse 
nicely measured by six feet of spondees and dactyls, no alter- 
nate movement of long and short syllables, is as absurd as to 
say there is no music in the roar of Niagara or the ocean, be- 
cause their waves do not always keep the same time. It is to 
deny that a man has a soul within him, because he does not hap- 
pen to be dressed in the fashion of the day. 

Yes, notwithstanding the absence of everything like our 
modern versification, there is still in all the Hebrew poetry, as 
appears even in our prose translation, a regular rhythm of word 
with word, a studied harmony of thought with thought, a 
measured movement from line to line, which indicates that it 
might be, as we know much of it was, set to the music of the 



OF THE BIBLE. 79 

instrument and the voice. And this harmony or rhythm, in 
thought and word, is the first and main criterion by which the 
poetry of the Bible may be easily distinguished from its prose 
both in English and in Hebrew. 



III. ^THE STYLE OF HEBREW POETRY PARAIXELISM. 

This brings us to speak of the style, or outward form of 
Hebrew poetry ; and of its most peculiar and remarkable char- 
acteristic, which is the parallelism. Parallelism is the harmony 
or ryhthm, produced by the correspondence of two or more 
clauses, or members of a passage with each other. It is a cor- 
responding of two lines, or three, or even four, sometimes by 
way of resemblance and sometimes of contrast, in which word 
harmonizes with word, thought with thought, and sentence 
with sentence ; the one being the complement, or counterpart, 
or antithesis of the other. Verb answers verb, and noun ans- 
wers noun — thought replies to thought and feeling to feeling, 
as the echo to the voice or as deep calling unto deep. This 
unique, and in many respects admirable, arrangement admits of 
manifold varieties, and in one form or other, runs through all 
the poetry of the Bible. The parallelism, however, lies more in 
the sense than in the sound. In this respect it differs from our 
English rhyme, which consists more in the sound than the sense. 
With us two lines or more of verse are made to correspond, 
simply by being cut of equal length, and coupled at the end by 
syllables which sound alike, almost regardless of the sense. 
But the Hebrew parallelism is a harmony of much higher order. 
It is the rhyme of reason. It is the harmony of thought. It 
is not the shallow music of symphonious letters ; but the deeper, 



80 POETKY AND THE BARDS 

grander music of symphonious words and sentences and ideas. 
It is not the mere tying of two lines together by a syllable at 
the end, which may have as little concord, as two of Samson's 
foxes, when tied together by the tails with a fire-brand between ; 
but it is the rhyming of whole propositions, the intertwining 
and intermarrying of idea with idea in indissoluble, harmo- 
nious, happy bans. As a vehicle of poetry, the parallelism 
of the Bible, is to our modern rhymes, and indeed to the spon- 
dees and dactyls of the Greeks and Komans, what the deep- 
toned thunder of the organ would be to the whistle of an octave 
flute. 

Now the several orders of parallelism, embracing as they do 
almost every sort of correspondence, comparison, contrast, and 
antithesis, as well as every degree of length from two words to 
a dozen, are so interchanged in the composition of Hebrew poe- 
try as to give it an infinite life and variety — relieving it at 
once from the stiff elephantine tread of our blank. verse and 
from the dull monotony of our rhyme. To use the illustrations 
of Herder, parallelism may be likened to two strings of pearl, 
not twisted into a garland, but simply hung up, the one over 
against the other. In lyric poetry it is like the waves of the sea, 
wave following upon wave, till all the heart swells with emotion. 
** In didactic poetry one precept confirms the other as if the 
father were giving instructions to his son, and the mother re- 
peating it." 

In order to see with what pliability and life the parallel- 
ism may be adapted to every variety of subjects from grave to 
gay, let us take a few examples of an entirely opposite charac- 
ter. Let us select first a few couplets from the nineteenth 
Psalm, marking the exact correspondence of the alternate 
lines. 



OF THE BIBLE. 81 

" The heavens declare the glory of God ; 

And the firmament showeth his handy work. 
Day unto day uttereth speech, 

And night unto night showeth knowledge.'' 
*' The law of the Lord is perfect, concerting the soul ; 

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. 
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart ; 

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. 
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever : 

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 

Was there ever a more perfect adaptation of the music of words 
to the subject-matter of thought than this ? How slow, solemn, 
majestic is the movement in these lines, befitting the dignity 
and sacredness of the theme ! The sublime conceptions of the in- 
spired bard, marching ever onward in heavy parallel columns, 
seem but to beat in unison with those revolving seasons and or- 
dinances of heaven, which they essay to celebrate in words of 
human poesy. We might almost fancy that the '' silent music 
of the spheres " had at last found utterance in the deep rhythm 
and harmony of these parallelisms. 

But let us now turn to that joyous description of the advent 
of Spring, in the second chapter of Solomon's Song, to see what 
this same parallelism can do with a gay and cheerful theme. 
Let us observe, with what gladsome voice, with what quick and 
nimble steps, and with what ardent love of the beautiful, it can 
move through the gayest scenes of nature. Let us see how 
easily, in these same double columns, it can pour forth the pas- 
sions of a loving heart, responsive to everything that breathes 
of love in the natural world : 

*' My beloved spake, and said unto me, 

Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away. 

4* 



82 POETRY AND THE BARDS 

For, lo ! the winter is past, 

The rain is over and gone ; 
The flowers appear on the earth ; 

The time of the singing of birds is come, 
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land ; 

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs. 
And the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. 

Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. 
my dove ! that art in the clefts of the rock, 

In the secret places of the stairs. 
Let me see thy countenance. 

Let me hear thy voice ; 
For sweet is thy voice, 

And thy countenance is comely." 

One of the most beautiful forms of this parallel poetry, is that 
which is called the ** Reiterative," in which the sense is contin- 
ued through several lines, gaining strength as it advances, un- 
til some great truth stands forth in all its proportions. The 
first verse of the first Psalm is a familiar example of this ; and 
a still more striking one is that memorable sentence of the 
wise man, which no young person should ever read without 
pondering well the fifth commandment — 

" The eye that mocketh at his father, 
And despiseth to obey his mother, 
The ravens of the valley shall pick it out, 
And the young eagles shall eat it." 

Another and still more remarkable form of this poetry is that 
which has been called the '' Introverted," in which the thought 
works inward and outward in parallel lines, the sense reaching 
its cUmax, not at the end of a sentence as in the *' Reiterative,'' 



OF THE BIBLE. 83 

but in the middle. Take a sliort example from the Fifty-first 
Psalm, instanced by Dr. Kitto. 

*' Have mercy upon me, God, 

According to thy loving kindness, 
According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies 
Blot out my transgressions." 

Take a longer example from the hundred and thirty-fifth 
Psalm as given by the same — 

" The idols of the heathen are silver and gold 
The work of men^s hands ; 
They have mouths, but they speak not ; 
They have eyes, but they see not ; 
They have ears, but they hear not ; 
Neither is there any breath in their mouths ; 
They that make them are Hke unto them ; 
So is every one that trusteth in them." 

This admirable and diversified parallelism, or thought-rhythm, 
as it is called by the more recent writers, is the most peculiar 
and indestructible characteristic of Hebrew verse ; and, as is 
well remarked by Dr. Kitto, '' this is a quality which is not 
lost in translation — is indeed scarcely affected by it, and is man- 
ifested in a book, designed to be translated into all the Ian. 
guages of the earth. While the metrical arrangements of the 
Greeks and Latins, as depending solely on the language, are 
quite lost by translation into another tongue, the rhythmical 
structure of the Hebrew poem is unimpared by translation, the 
most literal rendering of the words preserving but the beauty of 
their poetic arrangement.'' 



84 POETEY AND THE BARDS 



IV. THE SPIRIT OF HEBREW POETRY. 

Passing now from the style to the subject-matter of Hebrew 
poetry, we may notice another of its distinguishing characteris- 
tics ; and that is its sacrediiess. Parallehsm does not more strongly 
mark the diction, than an awful unapproachable spirit of holi- 
ness, the thought and sentiment of all the bards of the Bible on all 
subjects and on all occasions. This unbending sanctity of purpose 
pervades all their writings, great and small ; they seem to stand 
always, as in the very presence of Jehovah — the high priests of 
his temple, the interpreters of his oracles, the minstrels of his 
glory, the worshippers before his mercy-seat. They seem never 
to speak but with an inspiration coming down from the eternal 
throne, and a genius, whose lips have been touched with a live 
coal from heaven^s own altars. The muse of the Bible, in all 
her strains and in all her flights, has no other purpose, save 
that of serving God — adoring God. Of him she sings — towards 
him she aspires — in him she delights : 

" Him first, him last, him midst, and without end." 

She sees and adores God in everything. To her all nature 
is vocal with God, from the burning seraphim of Heaven, down 
to the hyssop on the wall and the lily of the valley. He is 
alike the burden of her simplest and her loftiest song. Her 
soul was panting after God — the living God, when, with the 
mother of Samuel and the mother of Jesus, she poured forth 
her humble but grateful anthems of praise ; and in search of 
that God, upborne on the wings of imagination, she soared to 
the highest heavens, with Job and David and Isaiah. 



OF THE BIBLE. 85 

" She passed the flaming bounds of space and time, 
The azure throne, the sapphire blaze, 
Where angels tremble as they gaze.'^ 

Says Gilfillan, '' slie has no atheistic music, like Lucretius, to 
be played off on the dry bones of a dead and Godless universe.'' 
Nor has she any talents angel-bright, like the school of Byron 
and Moore, to prostitute to the low business of filling the world 
with siren songs of sensuality — the base cravings of a morbid 
imagination, and the maniac ravings of unbridled passion. Nor 
has she any pent-up fires of genius to burn out for naught, like 
Shelley, sitting solitary and hopeless on the dismal, wretched, 
shores of that gulf of chaos and old night into which infidelity 
and skepticism would like to sink the world. Ah no ! with 
her all is life — all is beauty — all is hope — all is radiant with 
glory — all is pregnant with immortality — all is vocal with 
praise, for God is ever with her, and ** God is all in all." 

*^ It is hardly too much to say," says the author just referred 
to, " that the poetic genius of the Hebrew race was kindled at 
the fires of Sinai." Nay, that is hardly enough to say. We 
may give to Hebrew poesy an earlier origin than Sinai's fires. 
We may trace her nativity back to the garden of Eden. She 
is the eldest daughter of human literature. Her genealogy 
ascends to Divine inspiration. To the language of man, she 
holds a relation akin to that which Eve held to Adam. Should 
we impersonate and describe her, as a historical character, her 
heraldry might be thus recorded : Born amid the bright 
visions of a new-created world, when the morning stars sang 
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy ; trained up 
from infancy in the knowledge of all the wonders of creation, 
of providence, of prophecy and of miracle ; fed, now on angel's 
food in the wilderness, and now on the milk and honey of the 



86 POErRY AND THE BAEDS 

promised land ; indoctrinated into the sublime mysteries of 
that law which God's own finger wrote — she received a nurture 
and a discipline, such as formed no part of the education of any 
other national poetic muse. During all her early years, she 
played familiar with the giants of the earth, and the angels of 
God. The rainbow of Noah, the Leviathan and Behemoth of 
Job, the fiery and cloudy pillars of the Exodus, the thunders and 
lightnings of Sinai, the waters of the Deluge, the Red Sea 
and the Jordan, the swords of Joshua, and Gideon, the timbrels 
of Miriam and Deborah, the sun over Gibeon and the moon in 
the valley of Ajalon — all formed material for her young thoughts. 
These were her daily meditations, her companions and instruct- 
ors, until she reached her full orbed maturity of strength and 
beauty, and sat down upon the throne of David and Solomon, to 
reign forever as the crowned and unrivalled queen of song. 
And from that ancient hill of Zion — the highest mount of can- 
nonized bards — that throne of genius and of inspiration " fast by 
the oracle of God,'' she touched her harp — "the harp, the 
monarch minstrel swept," and sounded forth to heaven and earth 
a strain of power and beauty which has been reverberating 
around the globe till David's harp grows mightier than his 
throne — a strain of glory which the dwellers in the vales and 
on the mountain-tops of all nations have heard with rapture, or 
are yet to hear. 

Hebrew poetry is not only the oldest in the world, but from 
first to last it has been the handmaid of religion. Holiness 
to the Lord has been impressed on every line of it, and its 
whole subject-matter impregnated with the hallowed spirit of 
truth and virtue. ** This poetry " says Dr. Kitto, " is one of 
the many utterances of that which was unique in itself, and 
peculiar to ancient Israel. An.d just as all the noblest powers 



OF THE BIBLE. 87 

and contests of this chosen people, were chiefly directed to the 
one object of striving for the true God and the true religion, in 
like manner, their poetry also had no other way of becoming 
great and unique, than in this sole tendency to the sublime, nor 
to develop all its powers except in this movement after God. 
Ancient Hebrew poetry remained, as to its main essence an in- 
terpreter of those high thoughts and sublime conceptions which 
never in antiquity excercised such an inflaence anywhere else." 
On this point, Gilfillan, in his ''Bards of the Bible," makes 
the following appropriate remarks — '* The Hebrew poet was 
nothing if not sacred. To him the poetical and the religious 
were almost the same. Song was the form instinctively assumed 
by all the higher moods of his worship. He was not surprised 
into religious emotion and poetry by the influence of circum- 
stances, nor stung into it by the pressure of remorse. He was 
not religious only when the organ was playing, nor most so, 
like Burns and Byron, on a sunshiny day. Eeligion was with 
him a habitual feeling, and from the joy or the agony of that 
feeling poetry broke out irrepressibly. To him, the question, 
" Are you in a religious mood to-day V had been as absurd as 
' Are you alive to-day V for all his moods , whether high as hea- 
ven, or low as hell, whether wretched as the penitence of David, 
or triumphant as the rapture of Isaiah, were tinged with the 
religious element. From God he sank, or up to God he soared. 
The grand theocracy around ruled all the soul, and all the song 
of the Bard. Wherever he stood, under the silent starry 
canopy, or in the congregation of the faithful, musing in solitary 
spots, or smiting with rebounding hand the loud cymbal, his 
^ feeling was — ' How dreadful is this place ! this is none other 
but the house of God, and this the very gate of heaven V 
Hence the sacred song of the Hebrews stands alone : and hence 



88 POETKY AND THE BAKDS 

we may draw the deduction, that its equal we shall never see 
again, till again religion enshrine the earth as it once enshrined 
the Holy Land." 

V. DEPARTMENTS OF HEBREW POETRY. 

But from these two chief characteristics of the Poetry of the 
Bible — the one relating to its style or diction and the other to 
its spirit and subject-matter, let us now pass on, to speak of its 
several forms or departments. All poetry may be comprised 
under four grand divisions, leaving out of view for the present 
many subdivisions. And each of these four divisions, though 
in very unequal proportions, is represented in the Bible. 

The first, which is also the earliest in the order of time, is 
the Lyric : that is, poetry to be sung or played, for the most 
part expressive of the emotions and passions, and adapted to 
the music of instrument or voice. This includes the varied 
forms of ballad, ode, hymn and chorus. Anacreon and Sappho 
among the Greeks, Horace among the Latins, and Burns in 
modern times, excelled in this department. 

The second class is the Dramatic : that is, poetry represent- 
ing human life in all its phases, and accommodated to action — 
poetry not to be sung or played, but to be acted out as a pic- 
ture of real life. In this department we have Sophocles and 
Euripides in Greek : but Shakspeare is the most distinguished 
example in the annals of literature. 

The third kind is the Didactic or Proverbial : that is, poetry 
of a sententious and preceptive cast, addressed to the feelings 
chiefly through the judgment, and intended to convey instruc- 
tion to the mind: as, for example, in Young's '^ Night Thoughts.'' 
This class includes all descriptive poetry, not comprised in the 



OF THE BIBLE. 89 

other divisions : such as Cowper's *^ Task " and Thomson's 
" Seasons." 

The fourth division is the Epic or Heroic poem, which nar- 
rates or recites, in elevated style, a continuous series of events 
or actions, true or fictitious, historical or imaginary, in such a 
manner as to teach some great moral, or celebrate some august 
personage: as, for instance, the ** Iliad" of Homer, the 
"iEneid" of Virgil, the *' Jerusalem Delivered" of Tasso, the 
** Divina Commedia " of Dante and the " Paradise Lost " of Milton. 

Now, the bards of the Bible have surpassed all others, in at 
least two of these departments — the Lyric and the Didactic : 
the Lyric as represented in the book of Psalms, and the Didactic 
as represented in the book of Proverbs. And in descriptive 
didactic poetry, we might regard Job, Isaiah, and the prophets 
generally, as standing at the head of the list, if they did not fall 
more naturally under other departments. It must be conceded, 
that there is nothing in ancient or modern literature, which, for 
proverbial, sententious wisdom, and deep insight into human 
character, can be put in comparison with the poetry of Solomon. 
And as for description, where will you find any description of 
the works of God or man — any portraying of the scenery of the 
heavens and the earth, which can equal the bold, life-like pic- 
tures of Ezekiel, Isaiah and Job. At the distance of twenty or 
thirty centuries, these still shine through the night of past ages, 
as stars of the first magnitude. Upon a canvas, whose back- 
ground envelops in a cloud of oblivion all contemporaneous 
products of uninspired genius, these grand delineations of the 
patriarch of Uz still stand out in all their original brightness 
and beauty, as if they had been painted with the pencil of the 
sunlight, from ^^ colors dipped in heaven." 

But it is in the department of Lyric poetry, that the Hebrew 



90 POETEY AND THE BARDS 

muse attains her highest triumphs, and stands to this day with- 
out a rival in the history of literature. Whether we regard the 
Psalms as national ballads, designed to inspire the Jewish peo- 
ple with patriotic enthusiasm, and the love of glory, or view 
them as religious odes adapted to raise the devotions of the 
nation in holy gratitude to the God of their fathers — in either 
case they stand confessedly unequalled, unapproached by the 
odes or ballads of any other age or nation. In the chaste and 
simple grandeur of their diction and imagery, in the mingled 
sublimity and pathos of their sentiment, in the stern and imma- 
culate purity of their moral tone, in the deep, abiding impres- 
sion which they made upon the whole Israelitish mind through 
centuries of prosperity and adversity, and in the untold 
influence which they have exercised over every nation of the 
civilized world down to the present day, they never had any 
fair competitor, much less any equal. 

In the other two departments of poetry — the Dramatic and 
the Epic — ^it is acknowledged, that the bards of the Bible have 
not given us the same finished models. The composition of the 
Drama and the Epic, requiring more art and invention than 
the others, was uncongenial to the truth-loving spirit of Hebrew 
poesy. In these, the muses of Greece and Eome and all the 
great modern nations attained their highest flight and sung their 
noblest, sweetest song. But the muse of the Bible, being at 
once the early expounder of nature, when she appeared " unin- 
debted to the tricks of art,'' and the inspired oracle of God to 
teach man wisdom, chose the ballad and the proverb, as her 
most appropriate vehicles : and accordingly we find no great 
Epic, like Milton's, nor finished Dramas, like Shakspeare's. 

The fictitious history or novel, which constitutes the basis of 
the great Epic, and the stage, with all its cumbrous artistic 



OF THE BIBLE. 91 

machinery, constituting the basis of the Drama, were things 
unknown among the Jews, until they were borrowed from the 
Eomans, and introduced by that half pagan, Herod the Great. 
The muse of Hebrew poesy was always too truthful and holy to 
introduce anything like the stage, or anything nearer the novel 
than a simple parable or allegory 

Still there is one important consideration, in reference to this 
point, which must not be overlooked. Though the Bible con- 
tains no great epic, like the *' Iliad," and no great drama, like 
*^ King Lear " or *' Hamlet," still it contains much noble poetry 
of an Epic and Dramatic character. It is full of the germs — 
the seed-thoughts of great epics and dramas. It gives us short 
epics, which recite a true history and delineate a real hero. It 
sets before us sublime dramas, written for no stage but the 
stage of real life, and arranged for the scenery of no theatre, 
but the grand theatre of heaven and earth and hell. 

For example, it is generally agreed amongst Bible critics, 
that the *' Canticles," or *' Song of Solomon," whilst it has all 
the elements of a lyric and pastoral poem, is also a drama, com- 
plete even to the chorus, in all its parts, and intended to 
represent vividly the relation between Christ and his beauteous 
Bride the Church, under the imagery of a recently married 
husband and wife. As to the poetical character of the book 
of Job, there has been a diversity of opinions among eminent 
judges. It is said that Daniel Webster regarded it as an 
epic — the most magnificient to be found in human literature. 
But the most commonly received opinion, among Biblical scholars, 
is, that it is more of a drama than an epic. Whilst it is in 
many respects a didactic descriptive poem, and whilst it con- 
tains many of the essential elements of an epic poem, it seems 
to be more accurately described as a historical drama — the 



92 POETEY AND THE BAKD3 

oldest and the sublimest ever written, embracing a panorama 
of universal nature, material and spiritual, animate and inani- 
mate, ranging from arch-angel fallen to the Deity, and contain- 
ing a grand dialogue between Satan, Man and God, whose 
scenes are laid alternately in heaven and earth, whose denoue- 
ment is the vindication of the patriarch by the intervention of 
Jehovah, and whose great moral design is to *^ assert eternal 
Providence, and justify the ways of God to men.'' 

Be this as it may ; Miriam's song at the Red Sea, and Debo- 
rah's war-song, contain as in a nutshell the elements of epic 
poems, recounting real and heroic deeds. Moses' Farewell to 
Israel is another and longer epic, and might be expanded even 
now into a grand national epic, far more wonderful and glorious 
than the ^neid of Virgil. Many of the Psalms, in imitation of 
this address, are little epic poems, celebrating the mighty acts 
of Jehovah, when he led his people through the waters and the 
wilderness. And what shall we say of the later prophecies of 
Isaiah, running from the fortieth chapter to the end of the book 
in one unbroken and exalted strain ? What shall we call this, 
but one grand prophetic epic, whose suffering but conquering hero 
is the Messiah of Israel, whose story is the ever onward progress 
of Christianity, and whose sublime moral climax is the millen- 
nial glory of a world, redeemed, purified, and prepared for God ? 

VI. THE INFLUENCE OF HEBREW POETRY. 

If, however, we would do full justice to the Poetry of the 
Bible, we must measure it, not merely by what it has done 
directly itself, but by what it has enabled others to do ; we 
must take into consideration not only its own finished produc- 
tions, but also the materials it has furnished, and the vast 



OF THE BIBLE. 93 

influence it has thus exerted upon the productions of the 
world's genius, whose fires, for two thousand years, have been 
kindled at its altars. The Bible, as we have seen, not only 
contains the highest models of lyric and didactic poetry, and 
also no mean specimens both of dramatic and epic poetry; but, 
what is most important to observe, it has furnished the mate- 
rial, of fact, of sentiment and of doctrine, out of which the 
greatest epic poems of modern times have been framed. Their 
seed thoughts, their characters, their imagery, their illustrations, 
their grand moral, their religious basis, their whole conception, 
have been borrowed from, or suggested by the Bible. In what- 
ever the moderns have differed from, or excelled the ancients 
in poetry, it is the Bible that has helped them to the distinc- 
tion and enabled them to achieve the victory. If you 
could take out of the literature of modern nations, all 
that the Bible has put into it, there would not be a shred 
of glory left, on which to claim preeminence over clas- 
sical antiquity. And the same is true of our science, our 
religion, and civihzation, as well as our poetry. If then Dante, 
and Tasso, and Milton have written grander epics than Moses, 
David, and Isaiah, it is by the help of the materials which the 
Bible has put into their hands, that they have thus been able 
to surpass the Bible, whilst they surpass the ancient classical 
authors. Thus fostered by the Bible, they may virtually be 
claimed as bards of the Bible. Who would ever have heard of 
*' Paradise Losf or ^' Paradise Eegained," had there been no 
Bible ? Where else could Milton's muse have found such food 
for thought, and such themes for inspiration ? And what are 
these poems, after all, but a reproduction, and a liberal para- 
phrase, and a new translation of the Bible, couched in 
harmonious immortal numbers ? 



94: POETRY AND THE BARDS 

Some critics have entertained the opinion, that there can 
never be another great epic poem written : never shall another 
Homer or another Milton sing, because all original themes are 
exhausted, and all heroic materials used up. We are inclined to 
think otherwise. Far down the course of time, it may be, in 
the golden age of millennial glory, when the knowledge of the 
Lord shall fill the world, and all nations w^alk in the light of 
his countenance, w^hen the mysteries of the past shall have been 
solved, and all the ways of providence fully vindicated, then 
shall the last grand epic of Redemption be sung in sweeter and 
sublimer strains than any that have yet been heard. But mark 
it now, and write it as a memorial for the future ; w^henever 
that day of glory shall dawn upon the earth — whenever that 
loftier Milton shall arise, and that diviner minstrel than he of 
Chios, shall tune his harp for the last great effort of poetic genius, 
it W'ill be this Bible which shall inspire his muse, and furnish 
both the material and the moral of his song. 

It has been said that, *' Homer gave a mythology to antiquity^ 
and the fine arts to all the modern nations," so that, for nearly 
three thousand years, the world has only been borrowing from 
his pages, as the great storehouse of genius. In like manner 
the Bible has given to the world a religion, and along with that 
religion, an inexhaustible treasury of historic fact, of poetic 
imagery, and of sublime conception, which the great masters of 
all ages have been expanding and reproducing, with endless 
variety, in every walk of art and literature. Says an eminent 
scholar, in '' Kitto's Cyclopaedia :" '' Of all intellectual, literary, 
and moral treasures, the Bible is incomparably the richest. 
Even for those forms of poetry in which it is defective, it pre- 
sents the richest materials. Moses, has not, as some have 
dreamed, left us an epic poem : but he has supplied the mate- 



OF THE BIBLE. 95 

rials, out of which the '^ Paradise Lost '' was created. Milton's 
sternlj sublime drama of ^' Samson Agonistes/' is constructed 
from a few materials found in a chapter or two, which relate 
to the least cultivated period of the Hebrew Republic. Indeed 
most of the great poets, even of modern days, from Tasso down 
to Byron ; all the great musicians and nearly all the great paint- 
ers, have drawn their best and highest inspirations from the 
Bible. This is a fact, as creditable to religion as it is impor- 
tant to literature, of which he who is fully aware will not 
easily be turned aside from faith to infidelity, by the shallow 
sarcasms of a Voltaire, or the low ribaldry of a Paine. That 
book, which has led civilization, and formed the noblest minds 
of our race, is not destined to be disowned for a few real or 
apparent chronological inaccuracies ; or because it presents states 
of society and modes of thought, the very existence of which, 
however half-witted unbelief may object, is the best pledge of 
its reality and truth." 

Dr, Spring, in his ^' Obligations of the World to the Bible,^' 
has some admirable remarks on the same point : " There is 
not a finer character, nor a finer description in all the works 
of Walter Scott, than that of Rebekah in Ivanhoe. And who 
does not see, that it owes its excellence to the Bible ? Shak- 
speare, Byron and Southey are not a little indebted for some 
of their best scenes and inspirations to the same source." And 
then he goes on to point out the parallels, between Macbeth and 
Ahab, Lady Macbeth and Jezebel, Jeremiah^s Lamentations 
over Jerusalem and Byron's apostrophe to Rome as the Niobe of 
nations, his ode to Napoleon, and Isaiah's ode on the fall of the 
King of Babylon ; and other parallels, showing how greatly 
even profane and sometimes unbelieving writers are indebted to 
the book of God. 



96 POETRY AND THE BARDS 



VII. — THE "WRITERS OF HEBREW POETRY, 

But it is time for us to pass to another topic. From these 
several departments of Hebrew poesj — lyric, didactic, drama- 
tic, and epic — containing either finished poems, or the materials 
for great poems of each class, let us turn now to take a brief 
survey of its several authors — the bards themselves. Thus 
shall we have at one view the whole field of Bible poetry, in its 
style, sentiment, influence, subjects, forms and authors. 

The whole number of persons mentioned in the Bible, as 
having written or spoken in poetry of their own composition, and 
therefore entitled to the name of bard, is about thirty. Of these 
the great majority are the authors of short odes, or occasion- 
al pieces, minor poems and prophecies. The distinguished bards 
of the Bible however, that give character to its poetry and tower 
above all their compeers, by the length and dignity of their 
productions, are the seven following : Moses, Job, David, Solo- 
man, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. For although Moses 
did not write much poetry — indeed not so much as some of the 
minor prophets, yet, as he stood for many generations, almost 
the only bard of Israel, he deserves a place amongst the distin- 
guished seven. 

It must not, however, be supposed, that those whom we here 
rank as the less distinguished, are at all inferior in poetic ge- 
nius to the others. So far from it are they, that we find not un- 
frequently in these little poems, or fragments of poems, passages 
of sublimity, power and pathos, equal to anything in the Bible. 
Such for , example, are some of the Psalms of Asaph, such are 
many parts of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Nahum and Micah. Such 



OF THE BIBLE. 97 

especially are the war-song of Deborah and the awfully sublime 
prayer or ode of Habakkuk. 

Let us pause a moment to consider these two, as specimens 
from the minor poets. In Deborah, the martial spirit of the 
Hebrew race seems to have found its second grand utterance in 
song ; that of Moses at the Eed Sea being the first. Never 
did the female heart in any land or in any age, burn with 
brighter and fiercer fires of patriotic enthusiasm and religious 
devotion. She was the very incarnation of the heroic spirit* 
The famous Marseilles Hymn of Liberty sounds dull and tame, 
placed beside the trumpet-tongued notes of her song. With an 
epic and a tragic power, which in its condensation almost defies 
comparison, she sets the battle in array before us, as though we 
heard the tramping of its mighty hosts, and mingled in all its 
din and fury. In recounting this triumph of Jehovah over the 
enemies of her country, she summons all creation, not only to 
share in the shouts of victory, but to rush into the thickest of 
the fight, as if the " curse of Meroz " should rest upon every 
soul that refused to take part in the conflict. 

As the poem opens, we seem to hear the very watchword and 
battle-cry of the advancing array, in the apostrophic words : — 

" Arouse thee ! arouse thee ! Deborah ! 
Awake ! awake ! give a song of triumph ! 
Arise, Barak ! and lead thy captivity captive, 
Thou son of Abinoam !" 

And then suddenly, princes and people, governors and nobles, 
horses and mighty ones, tribe after tribe in successive onsets, 
rush to the high places of the field, " to the help of the Lord, 
the help of the Lord against the mighty." Inanimate nature 
seems to participate in the contest. '' The stars in their courses 

5 



98 POETRY AND THE BAKDS 

fight from heaven against Sisera.'' " The river Kishon, that, 
ancient river, Kishon sweeps them away," as it bears down the 
invaders of Israel in carnage to the sea : whilst above the 
din and conflict of the conquering and the flying hosts, we seem 
to hear the voice of the heroic prophet-bard, who had herself 
been the chief human agent in raising all this storm, crying — " 
my soul ! thou hast trodden down strength !" 

What is Campbell's " Hohenlinden," or Scott's " Flodden 
Field " or any battle scene, of equal length, in Homer and Vir- 
gil, compared with this impassioned dramatic description ? And 
yet perhaps there are many readers and admirers of fine poetry, 
who have not discovered that there is any sublime poetry in 
the Bible. Now if you will study carefully the fifth chapter of 
the Book of Judges, with the aid of all the translations you 
can find, you may come to the conclusion, that there is not, ia 
the works of literature, so far as you have explored them, a 
single martial ode equal to Deborah's. 

In the book of Habakkuk we have another ode equally 
sublime, but of an entirely different character. It is a prayer, 
and at the same time a descriptive ode of very peculiar charac- 
ter. It represents Jehovah as seen in history. It describes 
the God of providence, as a conquering hero, ever marching 
onward, with invincible power, through the whole cycle of 
Jewish history, from the promulgation of the law at Mount 
Sinai, to the prophet's own times. Consequently its materials 
of facts and imagery are derived, not from any particular event 
or date, but from the events of some thousand years. The 
historic bard looks out from his lonely watch-tower — he lifts 
his heart to heaven in holy midnight meditations — he casts his 
thoughts back into the shadowy distance of the past — he 
groups together the prominent signs and wonders of a thousand 



OF THE BIBLE. 99 

years — with quivering fingers he sw.eeps every chord known to 
the diapason of David's harp, and prepares for his last grand 
anthem to Jehovah's glory. Imagine, if you can, a staff and a 
scale, and an anthem, whose key-note should be the deep heaving 
voice of the sea, whose tenor the unceasing roar of the thunder, 
whose bass the rumbling earthquake, whose harmonious move- 
ment the music of the spheres, while the whirlwind and the 
cataract, the volcano and the waterspout swell the mighty 
chorus — and you have the only adequate musical expression for 
the prophets words and emotions in the following inspired and 
awe-inspiring ode, which we give in our common version, 
except in a few lines taken from Herder's translation : 

God came from Teman, 

And the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. 
His glory covered the heavens, 
And the earth was full of his praise. 
His brightness was like the sun, 
And from his hand the rays shot forth ; 
And there was the hiding of his power. 
Before him went the pestilence, 
And burnin£c coals went forth at his feet. 
He stood, and measured the earth; 
^ He beheld, and drove asunder the nations ; 

And the everlasting mountains were scattered ; 

The perpetual hills did bow ; 

His ways are everlasting. 

I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction ; 

The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 

Was the Lord displeased against the rivers ? 

Was thine anger against the rivers ? 

Was thy wrath against the sea ? 

That thou didst ride upon thy horses, 

And thy chariots of salvation ? 



i 



100 POETRY AND THE BAKDS 

Thou drewest forth thy bow 
Multiplying seven-fold thine arrows. Selah. 
Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. 
The mountains saw thee, and they trembled ; 
The overflowing of the waters passed by ; 
The deep uttered his voice, 
And lifted up his hands on high. 
The sun and moon stood still in their habitation ; 
At the light of thine arrows they went, 
And at the shining of thy glittering spear. 
Thou didst march through the land in indignation. 
Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. 
Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, 
Even for salvation with thine anointed. 
Thou didst smite the top from the house of the wicked, 
And lay bare the foundation even to tlie rock. Selah. 
Thou piercedst the head of the lender of their ranks. 
They came out as a whirlwind to scatter me ; 
Their rejoicing was to devour the poor secretly. 
Thou didst walk through the sea with thy horses, 
Througktlie heap of great waters." 

What is Gray^s *' Elegy," or Pope's ^* Universal Hymn," or 
Coleridge's sunrise hymn in the vale of Chamouny, sublime as it 
is, compared with this ? Each sentence here is a picture to be 
studied. Each line is a new door for the imagination, opening 
into the third heavens of sublimity. You may search the 
annals of literature, ancient and modern, and if you can find 
anything in the same compass, equal to the splendid imagery 
and majestic movement of fhis divine ode, we will acknowledge, 
for the first time, that the Bible is not the highest standard of y 
taste and genius, and of the divine art of poesy. 



OF THE BIBLE. 101 



VIII. THE SEVEN GREATER BARDS Oj? THE BIBLE 

• 

But if the superioity of the Bible can be maintained with 
regard to these, its minor bards, what shall we say of those 
immortal seven who have been called the ^' giant angels of 
Hebrew song ?" We cannot speak of all of them now, nor of any 
of them at much length. Of three out of the seven, however, 
we must give a brief and passing sketch for the completeness of 
our subject. These are Moses, Job, and David. The other 
four, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, will come before 
us, hereafter, in other relations. 

To Moses belongs the authorship of three magnificent 
poems — and these almost the earliest products of the poetic 
muse. His fame, as the first of historians, is entwined with 
the graceful garlands of virgin poesy. The first is that ^^ Psalm 
of Moses, the man of God," on the frailty of human life, and 
the care of Divine providence — the 90 th in the collection — which 
stands, between the two great divisions of the book, as its 
central and most ancient column. *'This" says Dr. J. A. 
Alexander, '^ may be regarded as the heart or centre of the 
whole collection, and indeed, as the model upon which, even 
David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, formed that glorious body 
of psalmodic literature or hymnology, which, with its later but 
inspired and authoritative imitations, constitutes the present 
Book of Psalms." The second is that sublime song of deliver- 
ance and triumph, which was sung at the Red Sea, when Israel 
saw the Egyptians '^ sink like lead in the mighty waters " — 
when Miriam and all the women of Israel, soundino; loud their 
timbrels over Egypt^s dark sea, responded in the lofty chorus 
which the men had raised : 



102 POETRY AND THE BARDS 

" Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, 
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." 

The third and longest poem of Moses is his valedictory song, 
delivered to the chosen people a little before his death, and 
recorded at the close of the book of Deuteronomy. It opens 
with the following impassioned, and beautiful invocation : 

"Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak: 
And hear, earth, the words of my mouth. 
My doctrine shall drop as the rain, 
My speech shall distill as the dew, 
As the small rain upon the tender herb, 
And as the showers upon the grass." 

And then, after recounting the glories of Israel, and the 
wonderful works of Jehovah, the manifold blessing of allegiance, 
and the fearful consequences of apostasy, he closes with an 
apostrophe in perfect keeping with the introduction : 

** Rejoice, ye nations with his people: 
For he will avenge the blood of his servants, 
And will render vengeance to his adversaries, 
And will be merciful to his land and to his people." 

But besides these productions of his own muse, Moses has 
also recorded for us, what may be regarded as one of the most 
remarkable of all the curiosities of literature. It is the song of 
Lamech to his wives, Adah and Zillah, in the fourth chapter of 
Genesis. This is the only piece of antediluvian poetry in exist- 
ence, being beyond all comparison the oldest in the world, 
unless we regard the prophecy of Enoch in the epistle of Jude 
as also poetic. It is worthy of notice, that the two pieces 
belong to the very same epoch. For Enoch, the author of the 



OF THE BIBLE. 103 

prophecy, was the seventh from Adam through the line of Seth, 
while Lameeh, the author of the song, was also the seventh 
from Adam through the line of Cain. One of Lamech's sons, 
we are told, was the " father of such as handle the harp and 
organ :" and thus, most appropriately, we find the first mention 
of instrumental music, in immediate connection with the first 
notice of poetry in the world. The song of Laraech seems to 
be a fragment, taken by Moses probably from a longer poem, 
which had been handed down to his times by tradition : just 
as the prophecy of Enoch must have come down from the same 
age to the far more remote days of St. Jude. 

Herder, in his " Spirit of Hebrew Poetry," calls it the song 
of the sword, and thinks it was composed and sung by Lameeh, 
on the invention of that weapon. He deems it descriptive, not 
of what Lameeh had done, but of what he might do, to his foes, 
with this newly invented and formidable weapon. He trans- 
lates it thus : 

" Ye wives of Lameeh, hear my voice 
And hearken to my speech. 
I slew a man who wounded me, 
A youth, who smote me with a blow ; 
If Cain shall be seven times avenged, 
Then Lameeh seventy times seven." 

If this be the correct view, it would really seem that Lamech's 
song was no empty boast, but was almost prophetic of what the 
sword has done in the world. Herder regards it as the most 
ancient of poems, proving to him that lyric poetry and music 
arose in the same age, and indeed in the same family, and as 
mother and daughter they have been joined togetlier ever since. 
But Job I what shall we say of Job — the Leviathan of 
Hebrew song — the patriarch of the age of poesy — the most 



104 POETRY AND THE BARDS 

venerable and hoarj of all the bards of the Bible, compared 
with whom Milton, in his old age and blindness, was but as a 
boj of yesterday I As he rises up to our imagination from the 
depths of antiquity, we think of a stately and solitary palm tree 
on the border of some vast desert, or of some lone tower of 
strength and beauty standing in the midst of mouldering ruins, 
or of mount Sinai towering in stern grandeur above the wilder- 
ness. Dr. Kitto says '* the book of Job, belongs to no class ; 
it is a class by itself ; there is none like it in ancient or modern 
literature." It is impossible that anything in literature should 
be more sublime than the book of Job ; because it is impossible 
to find a sublimer theme than God in nature, and the book of 
Job is alike true to God and true to nature in her sublimest 
moods. 

We will, however, pass over all its grand and glowing 
descriptions of the mighty works of God, as seen in heaven and 
earth, sea and sky ; and present you with a single passage of 
a different kind — a passage which we regard as a perfect model 
of the beautiful — a passage blending at once the beauties of 
classic diction, of poetic imagery, and of moral sentiment, which 
are the highest elements of beauty in a poem. It is the por- 
traiture of the Patriarch^s own character in the days of his 
prosperity, when he had the testimony of the Almighty that 
there was ^* none like him in the earth," **a perfect man and 
an upright, one who feared God and eschewed evil." It is re- 
markable to find such a delineation of character — abounding in 
the most delicate and exquisite touches of pathos and beauty— 
in a poet, whose muse is accustomed to soar on eagle's wings, 
above the clouds, to gaze on dazzling grandeur with an eagle's 
eye, and to claim the highest heaven of sublimity as her native 
home. You will observe, too, how the poetry shines out through 



OF THE BIBLE. 105 

the veil of a prose translation, for we give it in the words of 
our common version : 

*' Oh that I were as in months past, 
As in the days when God preserved me ; 
When his caudle shined upon my head, 
And by his hght I walked through darkness ; 
As I was in the days of my youth, 
When the secret of God was upon my tabernacle: 
When the Almighty was yet with me. 
When my children were about me ; 
When I washed my steps with butter, 
And the rock poured me out rivers of oil. 

*' When I went out to the gate through the city, 
When I prepared my seat in the street ; 
The young men saw me and hid themselves, 
And the aged arose and stood up. 
The princes refrained from talking, 
And laid their hand upon their mouth ; 
The nobles held their peace 

And their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth. 
When the ear heard me, then it blessed me ; 
And when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me. 

*' Because I delivered the poor that cried — 
The fatherless that had none to help him. 
The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me\ 
And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. 
I put on righteousness and it clothed me ; 
My judgment was as a robe and a diadem. 
I was eyes to the bhnd, 
And feet was I to the lame. 
I was a father to the poor, 

And the cause which I knew not I searched cat. 
And I brake the jaws of the wicked. 
And plucked the spoil out of his teeth. 

5* 



106 POETRY AND THE BARDS 

" Then I said I shall die in my nest, 
And I shall multiply my days as the sand. 
My root was spread out by the waters, 
And the dew lay all night upon my branch. 
My glory was fresh within me, 
And my bow was renewed in my hand. 
Unto me men gave ear and waited, 
And kept silence at my counsel. 
After my words they spake not again ; 
And my speech dropped upon them; 
And they waited for me as for the rain, 
They opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain. ^ 

If I laughed on them, they believed it not. 
And the light of my countenance they cast not down. 
I chose out their way and sat chief. 
And dwelt as a king in the army. 
As one that coraforteth the mourners." 

Xow the peculiar excellence of this poetry is, that, though it is 
soft and plaintive as a lute, its music, lying deeper than the mere 
words, never wearies the ear, its sweetness never cloys the taste. 
You may read it a hundred times, and you will find more to 
admire on the hundreth than on the first perusal. But we cannot 
linger longer on this magnificent poet. We must turn from Job ; 
and we do it by quoting a passage from the lectures of Dr. Turner 
in the Biblical Repository — '' In no other composition extant 
is there so much of the true sublime, and of magnificent sim- 
plicity, as reign through the latter part of the book of Job. A 
ju:]ge competent to determine the comparative merits of the 
literature of various countries, has given his decided opinion in 
favor of this work. * It is a piece of writing,' says the accom- 
plished Frederic Schlegel, * which, considered merely as such, is 
without doubt one of the most characteristic and sublime, 
which has come down to us from the ancient world.' '' 



OF THE BIBLE. 107 

Let US now come to David, the " monarcli minstrel " — the last 
in our present order, though not the least of the Hebrew bards. 
In him the lyric poetry of the Bible, and we may well say, of 
tho^ ancient world, reached its zenith. There is a power of 
expression, a tenderness of feeling, a devotion of the spirit, a 
depth and compass of experience, a soul-stirring divinity, in all 
the strains of the sweet psalmist of Israel, which nothing else 
has ever equalled, and beyond which nothing will ever be able 
to go. For thirty centuries the people and church of God in 
many lands have been singing the lyrics of David, feeling that he 
is their greatest, because he is their divinely inspired minstrel. 

David's lamentation for Jonathan, sometimes called the 
" Song of the Bow " from its repeated allusions to that impor- 
tant weapon of ancient warfare, is one of the most touching 
and beautiful things to be found in elegiac poetry. We may 
quote it from our common version in another place : but let 
us recite a few lines of it now from the somewhat liberal trans- 
lation of Herder, in order to show you how easy a thing it is 
by a few verbal changes, not affecting the sense at all, to adapt 
this prose-like poetry of the Bible to our modern ears. Surely 
no one can deny, that we have here the pathos, the imagery, 
and the very sound of poetry. 

" Beautiful Roe, thou pride and glory of Israel ! 
Thus then art thou wounded upon thy high places ! 
Fallen, fallen are the heroes ! 
How are the heroes fallen I" 

" Ye mountains of Gilboa, on you henceforth, 
Let no more rain or dew descend forever. 
No more on you, ye mountains bhghted with a curse ! 
For there the shield of heroes was struck down, 
The shield of Saul, as of one unconsecrated with oil. 



108 POETKY AND THE BARDS 

" Daughters of Israel, weep ye for Saul, 
No more will he clothe you in garments of purple. 
Nor deck your apparel with ornaments of gold. 
Ah ! how are the heroes fallen in the midst of the battle, 
Jonathan, thou lovely Roe, slain on thy high places." 

Bat let us take the Psalms as illustrations of David's muse. 
We need not quote them. They are familiar to all. They are 
among the first lessons of our infancy. They are treasured up 
id our hearts as the most precious and sacred mementoes of our 
early childhood and youth, and they will be the last parts of 
the Bible, which the aged can ever forget. All the pious dead 
of every past generation have sung them with rapture : all the 
virtuous among the living love them : and even the vicious and 
ungodly cannot fail to admire them. 

Have you ever considered what an impression the psalmody 
of David and his co-minstrels has made upon the world ? 
Have you ever calculated the extent of that impression upon 
your own heart and character ? After all your reading of 
Shakspeare and Shelley, Moore and Scott, Burns and Byron, 
or even Milton and Cowper, we venture to say there is no poetry 
in the world, which cao, this day, strike so many chords of 
feeling, call up so many vivid impressions, and revive so many 
tender associations in your hearts, as this poetry of the Psalms. 
Whether you read it in the *' old family Bible that lay on the 
stand," or in that dimly printed little Bible which was the gift 
of a dear friend now gone, the first book you ever owued ; 
whether you hear it sounding out, in trumpet tones from the 
pulpit, or coming up softly to the ear of memory, in that calm 
loving voice, which you first heard at a mother's knee, it has a 
charm and a power in it which no other bard can claim. 

You may read, as you have often read, these wonderful 



OF THE BIBLE. l09 

Psalms of life — the glowing eighteenth or the glorious nine- 
teenth, the beautiful twenty-third or the grandly descriptive 
twenty-ninth, the proverbial thirty-seventh or the prophetic 
forty-fifth, the consolitory forty-sixth or the penitential fifty- 
first, the grateful hundred-and-third or the devout hundred- 
and-sixteenth, the profound hundred-and-nineteenth or the 
rapturous hundred-and-thirty-sixth, the plaintive hundred-and- 
thirty-seventh or the sublime hundred-and-thirty-ninth, but still 
wherever you read, it is the same divinely inspired and heart- 
searching voice : and there is no other voice of poesy in the 
world which can touch your heart so deeply. 



IX. THE ARGUMENT FROM POETRY. 

All educated persons, are, to some extent, acquainted with 
the different arguments, or departments of evidence in favor of 
the truth and Divine inspiration of the Scriptures : such as the 
internal and external evidences : the arguments from prophecy, 
from miracles, from history, from moral purity ; and so on. 
But has your attention ever been called to the poetic argu- 
ment ? There is an argument, we think ; a very strong and 
important one, forming a branch of the general internal evi- 
dence of the Bible, to be derived from its poetry ; especially 
this poetry of the Psalms, of which David is the principal 
writer. 

Let those who claim to be philosophers, competent to explain 
and account for the phenomena of history, tell us, if they can, 
aside from Divine inspiration, what strange power is this which 
the sweet Psalmist of Israel has been wielding so long over the 
heart of man ? What sceptre is this, which he, whose visible 



110 POETKY AND THE BARDS 

throne has been in the dust so long, is still swaying over that 
vast multitude of educated, refined minds in every land and 
nation, that make up the church of God ? What magic spell 
of song is this, with which the monarch minstrel has bound in 
willing homage, and still binds, with ever increasing admiration, 
the elite of the whole civilized world, both in the church and out 
of it ? How happens it, that David, more than any other poet 
of antiquity, in or out of Israel, should write the devotional 
ballads of all modern Christendom ? 

Why is it, that we find in these ancient lyrics of the Hebrew 
muse, a point and power of truth, an insight into human 
character, a deep sympathy with all man's wants and woes, an 
experience and a personality, by which they come home to the 
heart of the individual alike in joy and sorrow as if they were 
written but yesterday to suit his case : whilst at the same time 
there is in them a reach and compass, a universality and com- 
prehensiveness, which makes them suit the case of the king or 
the servant, the philosopher or the child, with equal and perfect 
fitness : so that they are still adapted to the w^hole world as 
well as they were to Jerusalem, and express the devotions of 
man in the middle of the nineteenth century as suitably as they 
did in the times of David ? Nay, further ; why is it that 
these '^ Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," have expressed 
all our own moral sentiments, and religious experiences, and 
longings of desire after God, immeasurably better than we can 
express them ourselves : so that in every possible condition of 
prosperity or adversity, joy or sorrow, health or sickness, living 
and dying, we turn away from all other compositions, and pour 
out our hearts to God in these words, as the most congenial 
food and aliment of our souls ? 

How is it, that this shepherd boy, taken from the folds of 



OF THE BIBLE. Ill 

Jesse's flock, on the Mils of Judea, has sounded out from that 
so called rude, unlettered age, and from that insignificant cor- 
ner of the earth, such notes of human sympathy and Divine 
consolation, that all civilized men have heard them, and felt 
them, and can nevermore let them die ? Tell us, ye that reject 
inspiration, but cannot reject the facts of history, why David 
has done, what no bard of antiquity out of Israel, ever did — > 
what no bard of Assyria, Egypt, Chaldea or Persia, no bard 
of classic Greece and Rome, ever did ? Why have all, or near- 
ly all, the devotional ballads of these great contemporaneous na- 
tions perished, whilst the Psalms of Israel remain ? Why has 
the world made such a distinction as to keep these for daily use, 
and let all others die ? Or if any of them do remain, who 
reads them or sings them or cares for them now ? Who adopts 
them as his matin or his vesper hymn around the altar of do- 
mestic devotion, or as his requiem for the dead or his anthem of 
public praise in the temple of worship ? Who now is fired 
with religious enthusiam, or raised on the wings of holy rap- 
ture, or sunk in the deep waters of penitential sorrow and con- 
trition, by any song of Greece, or lay of ancient Rome ? But 
David is at every fireside, in every temple, in the very hearts' 
devotions of every civilized man — his voice heard alike in 
the cradle songs of our infancy and in the last farewells of 
our departing old age — his words bring still a ''rod and a 
staff," with which the humble and the great walk through the 
dark "valley and shadow of death." So that David has a 
firmer hold upon the world now, in the middle of the nineteenth 
century, than he had twenty centuries ago. 

Allow us then to press the question, for there is an argument 
in it : whv have these Jewish ballads become the ballads of all 
Christendom ? why have these lyric odes, which were more pecu- 



112 POETRY AND THE BARDS 

liarly and intensely national than any songs that any other nation 
ever had — indeed so intensely, exclusively and thoroughly Jewish, 
that none but a Jew could have written them, and no mortal 
could ever mistake one of them for a song of Greece or Rome, 
Egypt or Babylon — why have these deep-dyed national ballads of 
Israel become the religious ballads of the world ? Why do they 
alone, of all the songs of antiquity, possess this individuality and 
comprehensiveness, this combination of the national and local 
with the universal, this ephemeral aspect and yet indestructible 
character ? Can infidelity answer these questions satisfactorily ? 
Now, to all these questions there is but one answer possible. 
These Psalms were written by the inspiration of the Almighty. 
This poetry contains Divine, eternal truth. There is a genius 
here greater than that of human poesy. There is an inspira- 
tion in these songs higher than that of the muses. There is 
an intellect at work here, mightier far than David^s. This is 
the secret of their power ; this is the life-giving element of 
their duration. The poetry of these Psalms, like all other poe- 
try of the Bible, has achieved a success in implanting itself in 
the heart of man, which no other poetry has achieved, just be- 
cause it has spoken to him always in a voice of infallible 
truth and virtue as well as of beauty and sublimity. The 
classic muse of Greece and Eome, spoke to man in a voice 
of sublimity and beauty, and often gave vent to the outgushing 
emotions of the soul in a voice of surprising and surpassing elo- 
quence ; but she lacked wisdom, she lacked purity, she lacked 
truth. She had no knowledge of Divine, eternal things ; and 
being weighed in the balances she was found wanting, and her 
sceptre passed away. But the Hebrew muse, by her knowledge 
of Divine, eternal truth, not only spoke a language of superior 
beauty and sublimity, but made an appeal to the understanding. 



OF THE BIBLE. 113 

the heart, the conscience and the taste of the world, which 
shall never lose its power. And whence did the Hebrew muse 
derive that knowledge of Divine, eternal things, which gives 
her song its lasting universal charm ? Aye ! that is the point 
which demands the final answer. And there is but one. She 
received it from heaven ; it was the gift of God. She alone, 
of all the minstrels, was able to sing with unerring wisdom and 
purity, while she sung in beauty and sublimity, because all her 
bards '^ spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 

Here then we find a solution, and the only satisfactory solu- 
tion of all our questions, as to the superiority and enduring in- 
fluence of Hebrew poetry — its subject-matter was eternal re- 
vealed truth, and its inspiration the breath of God. And there- 
fore, every time you open this sacred book, and feel the power 
of these venerable psalms, stealing into the very chambers of 
your soul, you have a witness within — a demonstration strong 
as a miracle — that this is the Word of God. For assuredly 
nothing but the miracle of a Divine inspiration, could have given 
to a shepherd boy of Israel, such power to touch your heart, 
and to touch the great heart of the world, at this distance of 
three thousand years. 



X. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

But it is time to draw these observations to a close. It 
seems to us, that every intelligent person must admit, even from 
the brief survey we have now taken, the existence of true poe- 
try in the Bible ; and not only this, but the higher point, which 
we have been seeking to establish, viz. — that the Bible, contain- 
ing the most perfect models of sublimity and beauty in several 



114 POETRr AND THE BARDS 

departments of poetry, is itself the best standard, in literature, 
of true poetic taste and genius. And it seems to us that no 
one, possessing a cultivated taste and a true sense of the sub- 
lime and beautiful, can ever underrate the bards of the Bible. 
Nor is it without a purpose that God has made so much use of 
poetry in his word. A sense of the sublime and beautiful, is 
deeply implanted in human nature. Of this, poetry is the most 
fitting exponent and interpreter. And through this medium 
God has appealed, not only to the hearts of the educated and 
refined — men of taste and genius — but especially to the young, 
in whose breasts the fires of enthusiasm always burn most 
brightly. In this way, in ten thousand instances, he has gained 
a favorable hearing for that religion which the Bible reveals, 
and for that great salvation which the Gospel brings, as glad 
tidings to the sinful. The world has done homage to the 
blind old bard of Chios, but how different had been the result, 
had the Iliad contained a true religion and a true gospel for 
man I 

Poetry and music have, in all ages, been regarded as the 
vehicles of religious instruction, and the handmaids of religious 
devotion : and they have done good or evil just in proportion 
as the religion they have helped has been true or false. No 
well-read student of history can look with indifference upon the 
influence which poetry has thus exerted over the character and 
destiny of mankind. In our new Western world and in this 
money-loving utilitarian age, it is kept somewhat in the back- 
ground, even as religion itself is, but it can never altogether 
lose its hold, so long as the church shall sing the praises of 
God, or the Bible find admirers, or the human heart retain its 
appreciation of the sublime and beautiful. 

There is nothing in the world, except religion, which has 



OF THE BIBLE. 115 

made a deeper impression on man than poetry. And there is 
nothing in religion itself except its owq vital truth, by which it 
has acquired and maintained its ascendency over man, more 
than by its poetry. So that it is impossible to tell how much 
the world owes to religion, and how much religion owes to 
poetry. If the Bible then had contained no poetry, its rehgion 
would have lost an incalculable source of power : of which all 
forms of false religion had plentifully availed themselves. In- 
deed we can hardly conceive how the religion of the Bible, which 
is pree'minently the religion of the heart, could have gained its 
present supremacy over civilized man, without the aids of poetry 
and music. We know that all false religions have seized upon 
them for help : and no great delusion has gained even a partial 
triumph without their aid. 

"There is no form of religion," says GilfiUan, *' so false, but 
that it has availed itself of the aid of song. Thor and Woden 
of Northern Europe, Bramah and Vishnu of Asia, have all had 
their poet laureates. Mohammed is the hero of a thousand 
parables, poems and tales in the East. Every beUef or unbelief 
has found its poetry, excepting always modern materialism, as 
represented by the utilitarian philosophy. There is no specula- 
tion in its eye — no man of genius can make it beautiful ; be- 
cause it has not one beautiful element in it, and because no 
man of genius can believe it. Its sole music is the chink of 
money, and its main theological principle — the gradual devel- 
opment of mud into m^n and dirt into deity — ^is as incapable 
of poetic treatment, as it is of scientific proof." 

From the survey which we have now taken of the poetry and 
the bards of the Bible, we have seen how the truth of God and 
the nature of man, the religion of heaven and the songs of 
earth, are linked together in immortal ties. What God hath 



116 POETRY AND THE BARDS 

thus joined together let no man put asunder. Eeligion and 
Poesy, united in the Bible from their birth, have lived together 
through all ages, companions in the church on earth, and as we 
learn from the visions of the Apocalypse, destined to be com- 
panions forever in the church above. For it is one of the last 
and the most delightful revelations of the book of God, that 
this religion of heaven, whose harbinger was the song of the 
morniDg stars and the sons of God, whose monarch minstrel and 
whose prophet bards sang so sweetly and so long upon the 
holy hills of Zion, and whose great Messiah was heralded to 
earth by a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God in the 
chorus — '' Glory to God in the highest : peace on earth and 
good will to men" — that this religion, after it shall have been 
sung in the poetry of every human tongue, and filled the world 
with the voice of its melody, shall at last, gather together 
around the throne on high, all its earlier and its later bards 
for the grand concert of eternity : and that there, upon the 
bright plains of glory, in an amphitheatre which shall sweep the 
circuit of the all-surrounding skies, and rear its dome amid the 
echoing arches of the everlasting firmament — there the innumer- 
able company of the redeemed from earth shall tune their 
golden lyres, and the thousands and thousands and ten times 
thousands of angels, cherubim and seraphim, shall bring their 
harps, and with their immortal tongues, shall sing the ^' song 
of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb," whilst 
God himself shall hear and approve the praise. Then shall 
the redeemed from Adam's race lift up their loudest, sweetest 
song — even the new song of redemption — ''Thou art worthy, 
for thou wast slain" "Unto him that washed us in his blood, 
and hath made us kings and priests unto God : to him be glory 
and dominion forever and ever. Amen." 



OF THE BIBLE. 117 

Such then is the Bible ; such its poetry, its religion, its 
anticipations ! And now in conclusion, as an illustration of the 
estimation in which the Bible is held by men of genius, and in 
perfect keeping with our subject, we may refer to an incident, 
which is one of the most touching and beautiful to be found in 
modern biography. It is an incident in the last days of 
Walter Scott. 

If there is any one, amongst all the brilliant writers of this 
nineteenth century, who may be said to have raised himself 
above his fellows by the force of literary genius, and to have 
won the very highest position in the world of letters, so as to 
be fairly entitled to a double chaplet of poesy and prose, it is 
that gifted son of the North — the author of Marmion and of 
Waverley, who held the world so long spell-bound while he 
was known only as the *' Great Unknown." 

When he, thus crowned with honors at home, and with the 
laurel-wreath of a world-wide fame, was at last crowned with 
length of days, and conjSned to his bed by that sickness from 
which he never recovered ; and whilst he lay there at Abbots- 
ford in the bosom of his family, calmly awaiting the hour of 
death, then near at hand, on one occasion of partial relief, he 
requested a friend to read aloud for him. *'What book 
shall I read ?" asked the friend. '^ Why do you ask such a 
question ?" said the dying man. ^^ There is but one : there can be 
but one now : bring me the Bible.'^ ^ 

Verily, there is a time in every man's life, when the Bible is 
the only Book — the last and only book for the peasant and 
the prince, for the dying child and the dying man of genius. 



118 ELOQUENCE AND OEATOET 



CHAPTER III. 

ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

Elements and Characteristics of Eloquence — Illustrations of Eloquence — Earliest 
Example of Eloquence in the Old Testament — Judah as an Orator — Aaron as an 
Orator — Other Examples from the Old Testament — Eloquence of Hushai, the 
Archite. 

From: the review already taken of the Hebrew poets and 
poetry, it is easy and natural to pass to a kindred topic, and one 
too that is sufficiently ample for a separate illustration, viz. : — 
" The Eloquence and Orators of the Old Testament." Eieh and 
attractive as we have found this venerable book in the domain 
of poesy, it will be found not less so, when we come to survey 
its prose writings, and point out the examples of that soul- 
subduing eloquence, by which these men of old, spoke to their 
fellow-men, sometimes as they were impelled by their own 
genius, sometimes as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and 
in one case, as " never man spake." 

Our field of vision, though lying in the same book, will be 
wholly changed. An entirely different class of personages will 
now stand before us. Although the highest models of elo- 
quence are to be found distributed alike through the Old 
Testament and the New, still the orators of the Bible are not 
its poets. And it serves to illustrate most strikingly the va^ 
variety of material in this book, that, of all the men who have 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 119 

been mentioned in the last chapter, or may be mentioned in 
this, only one, and truly speaking, not even that one, wears the 
double character of bard and orator. We propose to consider 
the orators of the Old Testament and of the New, successively • 
but as the subject is one of special interest, let us first examine 
a little into the nature of eloquence in general. 



I. ELEMENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF ELOQUENCE. 

It is not an easy matter to give a satisfactory analysis of elo- 
quence. Dim indeed, and shadowy is the line which divides it 
from good classic prose on the one side, and from poetry on the 
other. Yet there is a line. All true poetry, whether of the 
beautiful or the sublime, is in some sense, eloquent : and all 
eloquence .of a high order, is tinged with a coloring of poetry : 
because eloquence not less than poetry, is the language of 
human nature when excited — the language of strong emotions 
and of a vivid imagination. Still eloquence and poetry are 
not the same, and must be distinguished. 

Regarded simply as an art, the distinction is broad enough, 
as indicated by the etymology of the terms, poet and orator : 
the one expressing thought and feeling, by means of words 
arranged, or, if you please, manufactured into a definite, 
regular order, called verse or rhythm, and the other expressing 
thought and feeling by words, studied or unstudied, poured 
forth from the mouth, without regard to metre or the harmony 
of numbers. As mere artists, therefore, the poet is a maker 
of words, mostly written words ; the orator, a speaker of 
words mostly unwritten ; but both alike conveying thought 
and feeling to others. The hand, with its proper writing 
materials, might be regarded as the visible emblem of the one : 



120 ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY 

and the mouth, with its appropriate aids of tone, look and 
gesture, as the symbol of the other. 

But mere art is the least important element, either of poetry 
or eloquence. All verse, however regular its numbers, is not 
poetry : nor is all oratory, however sonorous and ornate, elo- 
quent. There must be something else : there must be a living 
spirit in the words — a sort of divinity stirring within the num- 
bers or the speech, before we can say, that this is poetry, or 
that is eloquence. We may have the shibboleth of poetic 
diction, and the glow of poetic images, as well as the harmony 
of sweet sounds, where there is no true spirit of poesy. So 
also there may be the spirit of real poetry, where there is no 
form of verse : as in Ossian, or in our translation of the Bible, or 
in the original Hebrew itself, and as there would be in Milton or 
any other great poet, whose verse might be turned into prose, 
without, at all, ceasing to breathe the true spirit of poetry. 

And precisely so is it with the orator. A man may open his 
mouth and speak all day : and in all his words there may be no 
eloquence, either of thought, feeling, or imagination — not one 
glowing image, not one thrilling thought, not one soul-stirring 
appeal. And yet another man, with a certain earnestness and 
enthusiasm, shall arise and present the same arguments, though 
in different words; or, if you please, the very same words, though 
in a different manner, and in him all will be eloquent — there 
will be eloquence in every accent, look and gesture : and he 
will so electrify the audience, that they shall not know these 
words and arguments are the same. 

What constitutes the difference ? As all men are not 
orators, nor all oratory eloquence, by what process, and at 
what point, does simple speech lay aside its dullness and undergo 
that wonderful transformation which entitles it to be called 
eloquent ? It is hard to tell. There is perhaps nothing more 



OF, THE OLD TESTAMENT. 121 

difficult to bring within the compass of a complete definition 
than the nature of true eloquence. We shall not attempt it. 
There are some things which must be felt in order to be appre- 
ciated. We should hardly attempt to define for others, the 
form and features, the look and lineaments of an angel, even if 
we had seen one. So, to those who have not witnessed for 
themselves the exhibitions of real eloquence all descriptions 
would be useless. But no man needs a logical definition to 
ascertain what eloquence is, or to know when he hears a true 
orator. For it is of the very nature of this inspiration to 
carry its own credentials along with it, and by the living voice 
to cleave a way for itself directly to the heart Let it suffice 
then, to point out and to illustrate by examples, the different 
species- of eloquence, leaving the nature of the thing itself to 
the taste, judgment, and opportunities of each individual. 

The object of the orator, whether at the bar, or on the 
forum, in the pulpit or the lecture-room, in all judicial, delibera- 
tive, religious and popular assemblies, is to convince, instruct, 
please, persuade, or excite his audience, as the case may be ; 
sometimes the one and sometimes the other, and it may be all. 
Now, the power by which he does this, most effectively, is what 
we call eloquence. But that power partakes of different 
elements in different cases, and manifests itself in several differ- 
ent wavs in different orators. And these diversities o-ive rise to 
different orders or species of eloquence. It seems to us, from 
such examination as we have been able to make, that these 
several elements and Characteristics of eloquence, may all be 
reduced to the four following — each distinct enough to give rise 
to a peculiar species, and all, at the same time, comprehensive 
enough to cover every style and order of true eloquence : 

The first is the element of superior knowledge and intellectual 

6 



122 ELOQTJEI^CE AKD ORA.TOKY 

power in the orator — the eloquence of pure reason and argu- 
ment. Its chief characteristic is strong, clear, original thought, 
forcibly expressed. We may denominate it the eloquence of 
the Intellect, as distinguished from each of the other orders. 

The second is that element of power in the orator which 
springs from a refined taste, a vivid imagination, and great 
command of language, It deals much in analogies and illus- 
trations. It has a high appreciation of the sublime and beauti- 
ful. It is characterized by classic diction and brilliant imagery. 
It may be called the eloquence of Taste and Imagination. 

The third element is that of earnestness, enthusiasm and deep 
emotion in the speaker. All its utterances come fresh from 
the fountains of feeling in the soul All its words are oracles 
and commands. The orator appears like one inspired — one 
born to command by the very energy of his will and intensity 
of his convictions. This may be called the eloquence of Sym- 
pathy and the Passions. 

The fourth is the element of graceful delivery, including every- 
thing that pertains to the person, manner, tone, look and 
gesture of the speaker. It is that power which can supply the 
place of the other three ; and often, as on the stage, makes 
things that are not, appear as though they were. This may be 
called the eloquence of Action and the Voice : of which Garrick 
may be taken as the highest type. 



n. ILLUSTRATIONS OF ELOQUENCE. 

Now it is manifest that all the greatest orators of ancient and 
modern times have possessed these four elements of power, and 
exhibited these several varieties of eloquence. And their sue- 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 123 

cess has been in proportion to the perfection of this combination 
of gifts and endowments. Clearly these qualities all met in 
Demosthenes and in Cicero. They all met in Chatham, Pox and 
Sheridan, though in very different degrees. They were all 
combined, though unequally, in Chalmers, Edward Irving, and 
Eobert Hall. The most perfect model of eloquence which our 
own country has ever produced — Patrick Henry — was distin- 
guished for a happy combination of all these characteristics. 
But from all the accounts which have come down to us from 
his contemporaries, it is evident that he was far more indebted 
to the last two of these characteristics than to the first two. 
Dr. Alexander, who heard him, at the bar, in a case of life and 
death, has given us the following testimony : '' The power of 
Henry's eloquence was due, first, to the greatness of his emotion 
and passion, accompanied with a versatility which enabled him 
to assume at once any emotion or passion which was suited to 
his ends. Not less indispensable, secondly, was a matchless 
perfection of the organs of expression, including the entire 
apparatus of voice, intonation, pause, gesture, attitude and 
indescribable play of countenance. In no instance did he ever 
indulge in an expression that was not instantly recognized as 
nature itself : yet some of his penetrating and subduing tones 
were absolutely peculiar, and as inimitable as they were inde- 
scribable. These were felt by every hearer in all their force. 
His mightiest feelings were sometimes indicated and communi- 
cated by a long pause, aided by an eloquent aspect, and some 
sio:nificant use of his finsrer." 

Macaulay, who now holds a place amongst the ablest of living 
orators, is evidently the opposite of Henry, in being mostly dis- 
tinguished for the eloquence of taste and imagination, and also 
of the intellect. Again, Whitfield, a perfect master of the elo- 



124 ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY 

quence of sympathy and the passions, of action and delivery, 
not wanting also in taste and imagination, was unquestionably 
the greatest of pulpit orators while . living, but is scarcely 
known to posterity by his writings, because he was deficient in 
the eloquence of the intellect. 

On the contrary, Edmund Burke, excelled all his contempo- 
raries by his massive intellect, his varied learning, his classic 
taste and exuberant imagination, and being dead, yet speaketh 
in his writings ; whilst as a living orator, because lacking a single 
characteristic — the eloquence of delivery and the voice — he was 
not only eclipsed by inferior men, but left to pronounce his great 
speeches to empty benches. Still who can deny that Burke 
was an eloquent man ? We might as well deny that there is 
any such thing as eloquence in the world. It is obvious, then, 
that there are different orders of eloquence. It is obvious further, 
that whilst all these characteristics must meet to form a perfect 
and successful orator, yet they have been exhibited in very dif- 
ferent proportions by those entitled to be called eloquent. 
Sometimes one, and sometimes another has been the prominent 
characteristic. 

We have seen a striking illustration of this difference of gifts, 
in that remarkable triumvirate, whose eloquence adorned our 
national senate for a quarter of a century, whose statesmanship 
filled the world with its fame, and whose loss, so recently and 
so nearly together, our country has been called to deplore. 
Webster, Clay and Calhoun are beyond all comparison the 
three greatest statesmen our country has produced in this nine- 
teenth century, and they take their rightful place also amongst 
the greatest forensic orators and parliamentary debaters of the 
world. And so nearly balanced were their abilities that it is 
almost impossible to decide the point of superiority, and say, 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 125 

who made the deepest impression on the men of his generation. 
There can be no question, as to one point — whose influence will 
be greatest on posterity, because that is determined by their 
writings. Now each of these eminent men possessed, in some 
degree, all the essential elements of eloquence. And yet how 
widely different — how utterly dissimilar were their styles of ora- 
tory — how peculiar to each, how inimitable by any other, and 
how characteristic of the man, was his own mode of speech ! 
They did not differ from their fellow-men, more widely, than 
they differed from each other. Perhaps of no three men in 
America, could it be more truly said, than of each of these, that 
as a man and an orator, he was sui generis — forming an order 
by himself. 

Mr. Calhoun's eloquence was the eloquence of intellect and 
argument — pure, clear, original thought flowing from one of the 
acutest of intellects, combined, at the same time, with an 
energy of will, a depth and earnestness of emotion, a high 
wrought enthusiasm, and a conviction within, that always seem- 
ed bent on carrying its purpose in defiance of all opposition. 
He was but little aided by the imagination, and almost unin- 
debted to the outward graces of delivery, saving such as neces- 
sarily arose from a commanding person, an eye ever burning 
with the fires of genius, and a voice indicative of the utmost 
decision and energy. But it was a combination of the first two 
characteristics — intellectual power and enthusiastic passion- 
possessed in a preeminent degree, that gave him his influence 
as an orator and his greatness as a statesman. We may take 
him as the representative and the type of the eloquence of Intel- 
lect and Enthusiasm. 

Mr. Webster's was also the eloquence of intellect and argu- 
ment, as massive and comprehensive as that of his great 



126 ELOQUENCE AND ORATOKY 

compeer, but at the same time aided by a taste as classical as 
Cicero's and an imagination almost as exuberant as Burke's — an 
eloquence too, uttered with all the force that an imposing per- 
son, a powerful voice, and an energetic delivery could give ; 
but withal so stately, so magnificent, so coldly brilliant, that 
it did not always touch the heart and move the passions, except 
on extraordinary occasions, when the circumstances themselves 
aided the speaker's appeal. He possessed three of the elements 
of a great orator in high perfection, and the fourth to some 
extent. His great power lay in his extraordinary combination 
of argument, taste and imagination. His eloquence is eloquence 
to be read as well as heard. His intellect was like the clear 
sky of a winter's night, when all the stars of the firmament are 
out — and we fancy that every star is a gem of thought — a dia- 
mond of the mind. We take him as the exponent of the elo- 
quence of Reason and Imagination. 

Mr. Clay's eloquence was preeminently that of the feelings 
and the passions. Feeling deeply himself, he was a perfect mas- 
ter of all those natural arts of delivery which enabled him, at 
will, to move and to control the sympathies of his hearers. With 
an intensity of earnestness, which gave him the aspect of one 
born to command, and with an enthusiasm which filled and fired 
his whole soul, he needed not the slow processes of argument, 
nor the aids of imagination and classic diction to effect his object, 
but taking the most direct and effective way of reaching the heart 
— that is, the short cut through the door of its sympathies and 
passions — he carried the citadel, first by stratagem and then by 
storm. He was not wanting in powers of reasoning, nor in 
flights of imagination, but he did not depend on these. He had 
more effective artillery. His great power as an orator lay, not in 
the eloquence of intellect and argument, nor in that of taste and 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



127 



imagination, but in the burning eloquence of a soul on fire, giv- 
ing utterance to itself with those matchless graces of delivery, 
that charm of a personal presence, that magic of a look, that 
pointing of a finger, that clarion-like ringing or thunder-tone of 
the voice, which it is impossible, for any one who heard him, to 
believe could have been surpassed by Demosthenes. In this last 
characteristic, he was unlike both his great compeers, and much 
more resembled Patrick Henry. We take him, then, as the re- 
presentative of the eloquence of action and delivery, combined 
with enthusiasm and the passions. 



III. EARLIEST EXAJilPLES OF ELOQUENCE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 

After this somewhat protracted, though we trust, not unin- 
teresting nor unprofitable illustration of the several orders of 
eloquence, let us now address ourselves to the main subject be- 
fore us — to a consideration of those examples which so abun- 
dantly adorn the annals of scripture history. For let no one 
suppose that eloquence and oratory are things unknown to the 
Bible ; both the Old Testament and the New, make mention of 
the professional orator, and give us specimens of almost every 
kind of eloquence. The prophet Isaiah, in his third chapter, 
gives the following enumeration of prominent public characters 
and heads of the people — '* The mighty man, and the man of 
war, the judge and the prophet, and the prudent and the an- 
cient ; the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the 
counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator." 
Here the eloquent orator is the climax of the catalogue, which 
seems to show in what estimation the art of eloquence was 
held amongst his countrymen at that early day, long before the 



128 ELOQUENCE AND ORATORl 

Acropolis of Athens had rung with the notes of Grecian 
eloquence. 

The first example of a full and regular oration, which we find 
on record in the Bible, is in the forty-fourth chapter of Gen- 
esis. It is the speech of Judah, before Joseph in Egypt, in 
behalf of his brother Benjamin, and if this had been the first 
speech that was ever delivered, it would be a proof, that the 
eloquence of the bar had preceded all other eloquence. For 
it has all the characteristics of an argument in defence — a plea 
and vindication before a judicial tribunal ; but whilst it is the 
first recorded speech, delivered in the presence of a numerous 
audience, which has come down to us, it was by no means the 
first instance of public speaking. The Bible mentions seve- 
ral earlier occasions of public speaking, and even records what 
was said, in a few instances of a less formal and public charac- 
ter. For example we have the long and very effective speech 
of Abraham's servant, probably EUezer of Damascus, delivered 
to the kinsmen of Kebekah, in which he recites the events of 
his journey, tells of the wealth and honor of Abraham, and 
seeks to win the prize of a beautiful young bride for his mas- 
ter's son. Eloquence has not always been so successful as it 
was on this occasion, when it found its way to the heart of the 
damsel and of all her kindred. And those who would achieve 
a like success for themselves on such occasions, might do well 
to study, not only the natural, heartfelt eloquence, but the 
ardent piety and faith in Providence, which marked this first 
recorded speech and offer for a bride. 

An earlier instance still, but of a aifferent kind, we find in 
the short speeches of that dialogue between Abraham and 
Ephor, about the purchase of Machpelah, which, we are told, 
*' was held in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 129 

the city f and in which, as you may observe, both speakers 
exhibited much of the dignity, grace and deference of the fin- 
ished orator. Similar to this too, was another dialogue, held 
long afterwards, at the meeting and reconciliation of the twin 
brothers, Esau and Jacob, in the presence of their respective 
bands, who must have constituted no inconsiderable nor un- 
interested auditory. And in this connection we find an exam- 
ple — the first recorded example, of still another kind of elo- 
quence — the eloquence of prayer. For you must bear in mind 
that prayer is one of the forms of oratory, perhaps the original 
and primitive form, being an address, not to men, but to God. 
This is implied in the very word oratory. That solemn and 
impressive dialogue between Jehovah and Abraham respecting 
the overthrow of the cities of the plain, can hardly be called a 
prayer, although in the end it partook somewhat of the nature 
of prayer. It was a most beautiful and eloquent dialogue and 
remonstrance, but strictly speaking not a prayer. Accordingly, 
if we except a few brief expressions of prayer in the hfe of 
Abraham, and also the prayer of Eliezer on his mission for Re- 
bekah, the first recorded prayer of any length which we find in 
the Bible is that of Jacob, prior to his meeting with Esau. On 
this Dr. Eitto well remarks : '' Since the most ancient remain- 
ing example of any human act and thought, is deemed worthy 
of peculiar notice and consideration, the first human prayer 
that has reached us is entitled to attention." This prayer is a 
model of earnest, humble, confiding importunity ; it is in these 
words : " God of my father Abraham and God of my 
father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me. Return unto thy 
countrv, and to thv kindred, and I will deal well with thee. I 
am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the 
truth which thou has showed unto thy servant ; for with my 

6* 



130 ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY 

staff I passed over this Jordan, and now am become two bands 
Deliver me I pray thee from the hand of mj brother, from the 
hand of Esau ; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, 
and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will 
surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, 
which cannot be numbered for multitude." 

Here then, as early as the times of Abraham, Isaac and Ja- 
cob, we have recorded specimens of three kinds of eloquent, 
persuasive speech — the oral narrative, the dialogue, and the 
prayer. But long before Abraham^s day, we find still another 
form of oratory mentioned. We read of Noah, who is described 
in the New Testament, as a ^'preacher of righteousness," 
and who warned the antediluvian world of an approaching 
deluge, while the ark was preparing, during probably a hun- 
dred and twenty years. Though not one word of his preach- 
ing has come down to us, we may consider him as the earliest 
example, at least on record, of the eloquence of the pulpit. 
We can easily believe that with such a theme upon his lips 
as the wrath of God about to be poured out upon a guilty 
world in the waters of a universal deluge, his preaching must 
have been eloquent and powerful. Nor can we tell how many, 
who died during this respite of 120 years, may have repented 
and believed, and thus been saved by his preaching ; but we 
know that all the living perished except those of his own 
household. They continued says our Saviour, *' eating and 
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till the flood came 
and took them all away." Like many of his successors, this 
first of preachers may have been constrained at last to say— 
'' Lord, who hath believed our report." 

If we ascend the stream of sacred history still higher, we 
shall come, at last, to the record of another speaker, and ano- 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 131 

ther speech — a speech delivered to the first audience that ex- 
isted on earth, conceived and uttered too with great art, and 
with the full purpose of persuasion — a speech, alas ! as effect- 
ive as it was fair, as fatal as it was false. It is the brief, but 
cunning address of that arch- tempter, who, " skilled to make 
the worse appear the better reason," presented such a 
show of reason and argument, as one entitled to expound the 
law of God. *' Ye shall not surely die : for God doth know, 
that in the day ye eat thereof, ye shall be as Gods, knowing 
good and evil." It would seem, that the spirit of inspiration 
had recorded for us this first plausible and fatal speech, as if 
to be prophetical alike of the vast influence and the vast abuse, 
amongst men, of the noble art of persuasion, and as if to warn 
us, by one memorable example against the wiles of the deceit- 
ful special pleader, and sophist, and rhetorician. For here, in 
this first speech of that old serpent, the Devil, we have the ori- 
ginal type and model of all those orators, great and small, who 
knowing the right have defended the wrong, and prostituted 
their high talents to plead the cause of falsehood and injustice. 
How often, in the course of ages, and how often, alas ! in our 
own times, have truth and justice fallen in the streets, judg- 
ment been turned away backward, the cause of suffering inno- 
cence been trampled in the dust, and pampered vice and crime 
gone unwhipt of justice, through the perversion of the high and 
sacred gifts of eloquence ! 

Now, we have a heart-felt reverence and homage for the noble 
science of the law, a profound respect and admiration for the 
legal profession, as its ministers and expounders — we regard 
the one as the very sanctuary of all social and civil order, and 
look up to the other, as the high priests of truth and justice, 
clothed with the delegated authority of God ; but when we see, 



132 ELOQUENCE AND OKATOKY 

as we have too often seen, the sworn expounders of the law, 
vindicating the most awful crimes known to the Decalogue, 
when we see those to whom we are accustomed to look as the 
natural and divinely appointed guardians of life, character and 
public order, combining, under the mere forms of law, to defeat 
all the ends for which law was ordained of God, we have no 
language adequate to express our feelings of grief and alarm. 
Our confidence in the tribunals of justice is shaken : our feel- 
ing of protection in the enjoyment of life, liberty and happiness, 
is rudely torn away : and the native sense of justice, which un- 
derlies the public conscience, receives a wound, at the hands of 
its professed friends, from which it recoils in amazement and 
terror. 

And if there is any responsibility, which it will be fearful to 
meet in the day of final accounts at the bar of the judge of 
quick and dead, it must be the responsibility of the ministers 
of justice who have perverted the heaven-born gifts of genius 
and eloquence, thus to trample her sacred name in the dust. 
If there is any woe in the Bible which is fearful and overwhelm- 
ing, it is the woe pronounced on those, who plead the cause 
of injustice and oppression, " calling evil good and good evil, 
putting darkness for light and light for darkness," confounding 
and breaking down all the landmarks between right and wrong. 
Eloquent oratory is a splendid gift, but let the eloquent orator 
beware how he abuses that gift. For there is a God of infinite 
holiness on the throne who will hold him to a strict account for 
every word ; and that God hath said — *' Woe unto them that 
justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness 
of the righteous from him." 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 133 



IV. JTJDAH AS AN ORATOR. 

But returning from this digression, and passing over all the 
earlier and less finished examples of public speaking in the Bi- 
ble, we may select the plea of Judah, as an instance of the 
most simple, touching and beautiful forensic eloquence. We 
need not stop to depict the scene. You all remember the try- 
ing circumstances in which he stood up to plead for his breth- 
ren and himself in that august presence — before the powerful, 
apparently harsh, and, to them all, unknown governor of 
Egypt. A stranger far from home, and powerless ; in a land 
of despotic power and dark idolatry, he stood arraigned before 
the judgment seat on a charge which could not be denied. 
Before him and around him were doubtless 2:athered the stern 
officers of justice and a crowd of unsympathizing spectators ; 
whilst in the back-ground stood his brethren with desponding 
hearts and looks of agony. He stood moreover with the con- 
sciousness of a dark deed of former guilt yet unatoned — a dreadful 
secret which his companions knew, but which none durst reveal — 
and at the same time conscious of perfect innocence in the matter 
of which they were now accused — under all these struggling emo- 
tions, amidst all these crushing disadvantages, he stands there to 
plead for liberty, it may be for life. 

We know not with what looks and accents he delivered the 
speech. We can only imagine what must have been the looks, 
and tones and gestures of a man speaking under such circum- 
stances. Indeed the speech itself, which is on record, embraced 
in the short compass of seventeen verses, may be taken as au 
index of what these were. Aside from these, the speech con- 
tains all the elements of real eloquence. Its chief characteristic 



134: ELOQUENCE AND OEATORY 

is its touching pathos — its appeal to the tenderest sympathies 
of the soul. The deepest fountains of feeling are broken up, 
and poured out in every word. Its earnestness, is an earnest- 
ness almost unto death. It contains also argument — the argu- 
ment of the most simple, straight-forward, truthful narrative of 
facts. It appeals also to the imagination : and it is beautiful 
to mark, with what delicacy the speaker's fancy plays around 
the venerable form of that sorrowing patriarch who, in his dis- 
tant home, is waiting for Benjamin, whose very life is bound up 
in the life of the child, and whose grey hairs must go down to 
the grave if he does not return. 

But let us read the passage, as there is perhaps nothing in 
the Bible more worthy of a frequent perusal, as a model of good 
taste and simple natural oratory. The whole company, on the 
finding of the cup, had returned to the city. Brought into 
Joseph's house, they fell down on the ground before him. And 
Joseph said unto them, '^What deed is this, that ye have 
done ? Know ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine ?" 

And Judah said, " What shall we say unto my lord ? What 
shall we speak ? or how shall we clear ourselves ? God hath 
found out the iniquity of thy servants ; behold we are my 
Lord's servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup was 
found." 

And he said, " God forbid that I should do so ; but the man 
in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant ; and 
as for you, get ye up in peace unto your father." 

Then Judah came near unto him and said, ^' Oh, my lord, let 
thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and 
let not thine anger burn against thy servant ; for thou art even 
as Pharaoh. My lord asked his servants, saying, have ye a 
father or a brother ? And we said unto my lord, * We have a 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 135 

father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one ; and 
his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his 
father loveth him.' And thou saidst unto thy servant, ' Bring 
him down unto me, that I may set mine eyes upon him/ And 
we said unto my lord, 'The lad cannot leave his father, 
for if he should leave his father, his father would die/ 
And thou saidst unto thy servants, 'Except your youngest 
brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no 
more. And it came to pass, when we came up unto thy 
servant, my father, we told him the words of my lord. And 
our father said, ' Go again and buy us a little food.' And we 
said, ' We cannot go down ; if our youngest brother be with 
us, then will we go down ; for we may not see the man's face, 
except our youngest brother be with us.' Then thy servant, 
my father, said unto us, ' Ye know that my wife bare me two 
sons. And the one went out from me ; and I said, Surely he 
is torn in pieces, and I saw him not since. And if ye take this 
also from me, and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my 
grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.' Now therefore, when I 
come to thy servant, my father, and the lad be not wdth us ; 
seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life ; it shall come 
to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will 
die ; and thy servants shall bring down the grey hairs of thy 
servant, our father, with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant 
became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, ' If I bring 
him not unto thee, then, I shall bear the blame of my father 
forever.' Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide, 
instead of the lad, a bondman to my lord : and let the lad go 
up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father, 
and the lad be not with me ? lest peradventure, I see the evil 
that shall come on my father." 



136 ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY 

Now if eloquence is to be measured by the effect it produces, 
and that be adjudged great which accomplishes its purpose, 
then was this aa eloquent and powerful speech. It gained its 
end completely. It changed the whole plan of Joseph, which 
had been to keep Benjamin in Egypt. It melted his soul to 
tenderness. He could restrain his feelings no longer ; he made 
himself known to his brethren and wept aloud in the hearing 
of all the house of Pharaoh. If Judah had known at the first, 
who this exalted personage was before whom he was pleading, 
and if he had been able to read his inmost heart during the 
delivery of his speech, he could hardly have put words together 
making a stronger appeal to the feelings and imagination of 
Joseph. Says that eminent biblical critic, Dr. Kitto, '* There 
is not in the whole range of literature a finer piece of natural 
eloquence ; and there are few who have read it, without being 
moved, like Joseph, even to tears." We certainly do not know 
a piece of the same compass, in any uninspired composition, 
which can so affect us. 



V. AARON AS AN ORATOR. 

The next upon our list of Bible orators is Aaron, the brother 
of Moses. It would seem that Moses, with all his extraordinary 
gifts and powers, was no orator, at least, in his own estimation. 
Although his educational advantages in Egypt had been great, 
and perhaps his public services also, and although he is described 
as a ** man mighty in words and deeds," yet, up to the time of 
his commission to deliver Israel, he seems not to have been dis- 
tinguished for the gift of public speaking. He may have 
become so afterwards ; but on this ground, at the time of the 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. . 137 

commission, he pleaded exemption from the arduous work. 
Aaron, his elder brother, however, who had remained in Egypt 
during the forty years' absence of Moses, and had no doubt 
acquired some considerable influence amongst his countrymen, 
did possess this very qualification which the other lacked ; and 
that in a high degree, for He who formed man^s mouth testified 
that he could ''speak well." In that extraordinary interview, 
which took place at the burning bush on mount Horeb, between 
Moses and the Almighty, among other excuses for not accept- 
ing the great commission, we hear him offering the following : 
— " Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor 
since thou hast spoken to thy servant : but I am slow of speech 
and of a slow tongue." In this perhaps he had spoken too dis- 
paragingly of his natural gifts, as well as of the Lord's power : 
and with much displeasure the Lord said, " Is not Aaron the 
Levite thy brother ; I know him that he can speak well ; and 
he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth ; and 
thou shalt be to him instead of God." 

Thus commissioned and empowered, to act as one man — an 
arrangement which combined the energy of the man of deeds 
with the eloquence of the man of words — the two brothers 
went forth to fulfill their high and solemn task. Having first 
met in the wilderness by divine direction, they returned together 
into Egypt, with the wonder-working rod in their hands, and a 
*' Thus saith the Lord " upon their lips, to deliver the messages 
of Jehovah, first to their own people and then to Pharaoh. 
Arrived at the scene of action, and received as deliverers by 
their suffering countrymen, they hear again a voice from hea- 
ven, reaffirming their joint commission, and saying to Moses : 
— " See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh ; and Aaron thy 
brother shall be thy prophet ; thou shalt speak all that I com- 



138 ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY 

mand thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, 
that he send the children of Israel out of his land.'^ 

But we need not repeat the story of their wonderful labors. 
You remember what followed — ^how they stood day after day to 
plead their cause before the monarch and the magicians and all j 
the Court of Egypt — how they waxed bolder and bolder, as \ 
they delivered their sublime and awful messages in the name of 
the God of Israel. If ever there was a voice of eloquence heard 
amongst men which made the wicked tremble, even on the 
throne of power, it must have been the voice of these stern, 
uncompromising ambassadors from the desert, .as they stood 
some sixteen times in the presence of the tyrant, pleading the 
cause of their oppressed brethren, and alternately denouncing 
and averting the wrath of heaven. If ever words were deeds, 
they were these words, which, lightning-like, were so speedily 
followed by the thunder-bolts of Divine judgment. 

Now there are three things which are always needful for the 
display of eloquence of the highest order ; three essential par- 
ticulars must conspire together in the production of a grand 
and powerful speech ; and if these conspire, the speech need 
not be long in order to be eloquent and effective. There must 
be a great occasion, a great subject, and a great speaker. No 
one of these will do alone ; no two of them will answer with- 
out the third. Says a high authority, Mr. Webster, '* true 
eloquence does not consist in mere speech. It must exist in 
the man, in the subject, and in the occasion.'^ Such a subject 
Demosthenes had in the liberty of Greece, and such an occasion 
in the threatened invasion of Philip, king of Macedon ; besides 
many otliers. Such an occasion and such a subject Cicero 
found in defending the rights of Roman citizenship against 
Verres, and the safety of the republic against the machinations 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 139 

of Catiliae. Such an occasion and such a theme of absorbing 
public interest, Burke and Sheridan had on the trial of Warren 
Hastings ; Chatham on the American War j Brougham at the 
trial of Queen Caroline ; and Eobert Emmet when asked, 
" Why sentence of death should not be pronounced against 
him." Such Whitfield always had in preaching salvation to 
the vast crowds that attended his ministry, both in England and 
America. Such a theme and such a crisis too of intense moral 
sublimity, Patrick Henry and his compatriots found in our 
Eevolutionary struggle. Sach had Mr. Clay more than once, 
in introducing his great compromise measures for the pacifica- 
tion of our country. And such had Mr. Webster whenever he 
stood forth as the expounder of our Constitution, and defender 
of our national union. 

In all these cases, and in many others that might be men- 
tioned, the three circumstances of a great occasion, a great 
theme, and a great man conspired together to the creation of 
great eloquence. Now apply the canon to the case in hand ; 
and tell us when did these three essentials ever meet in such 
sublime combination, as when the two brothers stood before 
Pharaoh, as Divinely authorized deliverers of Israel, demand- 
ing a hearing in the name of Jehovah, and with outstretched 
hand and uplifted rod, reiterating the message, till Egypt's 
river rolled with blood— till its soil crept with reptiles and its 
air swarmed with insects — till all its vegetable and its animal 
tribes died of pestilence or devouring vermin — till its sky al- 
ternately grew black with hail storms or blazed with lurid 
lightnings, and a cry of death was heard at midnight in every 
habitation of the land ! The subject was the emancipation, 
from a horrible bondage, of a nation, probably not much short 
of three millions of people. The occasion was the manifest in- 



140 ELOQUENCE AND ORATOKY 

terposition of Jehovah in the ten successive and miraculous 
judgments which spread desolation over the most powerful 
kingdom then in the world. The speaker was not simply the 
fluent, eloquent Aaron, supported by his more powerful 
brother, but the Lord himself, who was revealing his mighty 
arm and uttering that voice which shakes both earth and 
heaven. They spoke to Pharaoh, the very words which the Al- 
mighty had spoken to them. 



VI. OTHER EXAMPLES FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

But not wishing to dwell too long on the Old Testament, we 
must now group together, by way of reference or of mere pass- 
ing notice, several other striking examples of eloquent public 
speaking, along with one, not less remarkable, of a private 
character. These, could we dwell upon them, would not be 
found wanting in any essential attribute of moral sublimity and 
power. Such, for instance, was the noble and dignified speech, 
recorded at some length, which Joseph delivered in the pre- 
sence of the wise men of Egypt, when he interpreted the dreams 
of the king, and foretold the years of plenty and of famine. — 
Such were the still fuller and loftier speeches of Daniel, long 
afterwards, on similar occasions ; once when he stood before 
Belshazzar and a thousand of his lords and chief estates, to 
expound the mysterious hand writing on the wall, and tell of 
the judgment which was even then waiting at the door ; and 
twice before that, when he stood before Nebuchadnezzar, and so 
announced the decrees of heaven, that this proudest of Chal- 
deans monarchs fell down and worshipped Daniel, commanding 
an oblation to be offered to him as one having the spirit of the 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 141 

hol J God. W e might mention, as further examples, those awfully 
sublime, messages some of them recorded, and some barelj 
referred to, which on great and trying occasions, Elijah and 
Elisha, Isaiah and Jeremiah, each in his day, delivered to the 
kings and courts of Israel and Judah. 

We might dwell ujDon another scene of interest (now greatly 
increased by the light of Mr. Layard's discoveries of Nineveh), 
and tell of that extraordinary display of power by a' single 
voice speaking in the name of the Lord, which took place when 
Jonah passed through the great city, and for one whole day 
proclaimed in all its streets, in the hearing of its vast popula- 
tion, those words of terror : *^ Yet forty days and Nineveh shall 
be overthrown," — until king and people repented before God 
in sackcloth and ashes. To use the language of another : ^' He 
must have been the subject of strange and conflicting emotions 
when he entered the gates of that proud capital. The stern 
soldiers upon the battlements, armed with swords and shields, 
helmets and spears — the colossal images of winged compound 
animals that guarded the gates — the gorgeous chariots and 
horsemen that rattled and bounded through the streets — the 
pomp and state of the royal palaces — the signs of trade and 
commerce, wealth and luxury, of pleasure and wickedness on 
every hand — must have amazed and perplexed the prophet, 
conscious of his utter loneliness amidst a mighty population, of 
his despicable poverty amidst surrounding riches, of his rough 
and foreign aspect amidst a proud and polished community — 
there was enough to shake his faith, and to cowardize his bold, 
haughty, and scornful spirit. Yet he dared not a second time 
abandon his mission. He therefore passed along the broad 
ways, and the great places of concourse, crying in solemn tones, 
' Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.' " No 



142 ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY 

doubt this great burden of his speech was enforced by other 
words, and perhaps bj a recital of all that had happened to 
him in the deep. 

We might speak also of the eloquence of another very differ- 
ent occasion ; of that exciting aud joyful day, when the Jewish 
exiles, on their return from Babylon, gazed with gratitude upon 
the rising walls of their new city and temple, and heard Ezra, 
the patriot scribe and priest, from his wooden pulpit in the 
street, and from morning till midnight, reading and expound- 
ing the word of God to the assembled multitude. We have 
no record of what he said. But we know there must have 
been great eloquence there, because it was a great day for 
Jerusalem, the speaker had a great theme, and he was himself 
a distinguished servant of God. 

We might set before you, in like manner, the scenes of an 
earlier and similar but still more imposing occasion ; when at 
the dedication of the fir^t temple, Solomon, the most august of 
Hebrew monarchs, stood before the altar of the Lord, while 
the cloud of the Divine glory filled the house. Having first 
addressed the myriads of devout worshippers there assembled, 
he kneeled down upon the scaffold of brass in the centre of 
the court, and spreading forth his hands towards heaven, 
poured out an address to Jehovah, which is recorded for our 
instruction, and is at once the longest prayer in the Bible, and 
the most magnificent liturgy in human speech. 

To this brief enumeration of cases, we must now add yet 
another of wholly different character. It is an illustration of 
eloquence in private between a man and his friend — the subject 
and his sovereign, if we do not misjudge the narrative ; but 
still a case, where the theme, the occasion and the person, were 
all important enough to produce a great impression. It is con- 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 143 

tained in that remarkable passage, where Nathan the prophet 
appeared before David with a message from the Lord respecting 
those fearful crimes of murder and adultery which had just been 
perpetrated in secret. With the utmost skill and delicacy the 
prophet introduces his subject by a parable of the most touch- 
ing pathos and beauty, setting forth a case of glaring injustice 
and oppression. This parable, which excels all description, 
we must recite. It was in these words — " And he said unto 
the king. There were two men in one city ; the one rich and 
the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and 
herds. But the poor man had nothing save one little ewe-lamb 
which he had bought and nourished up : and it grew up to- 
gether with him and with his children ; it did eat of his own 
meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was 
unto him as a daughter, xind there came a traveller unto the 
rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of 
his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come 
unto him ; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for 
the man that was come to him. And David's anger was 
greatly kindled against the man : and he said to Nathan, As 
the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely 
die. And he shall restore the lamb four-fold, because he did 
this thing, and because he had no pity." The speaker thus 
gains from the unconscious monarch an impartial verdict of 
self-condemnation in the guise of a sentence of death against the 
supposed offender : and then, as we may well imagine, suddenly 
changing his whole look, and tone and gesture, he utters that 
fearful indictment of high crimes and misdemeanors, of which 
every sentence seems to ring with the words — " Thou art the 
man,'-^ and which at once brought from the king the bitter con- 
fession — *1 have sinned against the Lord.'' 



144 ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY 

If ever words were barbed arrows, piercing to the heart of 
conscious guilt, thej were the words of this memorable speech. 
If ever eloquence mustered all its forces for a single charge, and 
poured them out in one intense and burning sentence, it was in 
this expression — "Thou art the man.'* We might suppose 
such a speech to have been taken as the model of Junius and 
all kindred writers. It has in fact been admired and imitated 
by all the great orators of all ages who have been familiar with 
the Bible. In fact, it may be observed, that almost all great 
speakers and writers, have either intentionally or unintention- 
ally, paid the Bible the compliment of borrowing its language 
for their passages of greatest power. When they would give 
to truth its most cutting power — when they would put barbs 
upon the arrows of invective — when they would bring an argu- 
ment or appeal to its keenest edge — when they would wind up 
a magnificient sentence or paragraph by a still more magnifi- 
cent close — when they would sum up all in one expression 
which everybody should understand and feel and remember 
forever — they seem to have felt that the work was best accom- 
plished by some apt allusion, or illustration, or quotation, taken 
from the word of God. How many offenders, great and small, 
have had the truth brought home to their consciences, in these 
very words of Nathan to David — '^ Thou art the man !'' But 
often as they have been quoted — often as they have been imitated, 
no orator of ancient or modern times has ever found an expres- 
sion of greater point and power. Perhaps the nearest parallel 
to this speech might be found in that bold interview between 
John Knox and the Queen of Scots, in which, to a question of 
the queen, the reformer replied — " If princes, madam, exceed 
their bounds, no doubt they may be resisted by power." It was 
to the study of such scriptural models as this, that Knox owed 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 14:5 

his heroic fidelity as a preacher. And doubtless to the same 
source, an orator of very different character, John Eandolph 
of Eoanoke, was indebted for much of that bold defiant elo- 
quence, with which at times, with shrill, unearthly voice, 
piercing eye and pointing finger, he stood like a spectre from 
the grave, and poured out vials of wrath against vice and cor- 
ruption in the high places of political power. 



Vn. — SUSHAI THE ARCHITE. 

Passing over all these and many other examples of effective 
thrilling oratory that might be mentioned, let us pause to notice 
one more remarkable case before we leave the Old Testament. 
It is the speech of Hushai the Archite, the friend and counsel- 
lor of David. It was delivered in the audience of the elders 
and chief men of Israel, who had been hastily summoned by 
Absalom to deliberate on the state of public affairs at the time 
of his usurpation — ^perhaps the first cabinet council of which we 
have any record in the history of the world. Whether we con- 
sider the crisis which called forth this speech, or the important 
results which flowed from it, we must regard it as one of the 
most remarkable instances of political sagacity and oratorical 
skill to be found in the Bible. We know of no speech more 
worthy of a profound and careful study by the admirers of 
eloquence. Upon it the cause and kingdom, the life and earthly 
destiny of David, turned as upon a pivot. 

The rebellion of Absalom had succeeded beyond all expecta- 
tion. David, with a small band of faithful friends and of 
veteran warriors, had hastilv retired from the citv on the 
approach of his ungrateful son. The throne, the palace, all 

7 



14:6 ELOQUENCE AND OEATORY 

Jerusalem, had fallen, without a blow, into the hands of that 
son. Even Ahithophel, the infallible counsellor, had gone over 
and espoused the cause of the usurper. Elated with his unex- 
pected success, Absalom calls a council of his nobles and mighty 
men, to determine what was best to be done in reference to 
David and his few followers, now on their retreat towards the 
Jordan. 

Ahithophel gives his opinion at once, and with his usual ener- 
getic decision. He counsels action — immediate and hot pursuit 
of the king. He urges, that with tvrelve thousand chosen men, 
himself at their head, they should pursue David that very night 
and overtaking him while weary and weak-handed, should kill 
him, put all his followers to flight, and thus by a single stroke 
render all further opposition impossible. With this counsel, 
we are told, Absalom and all the elders of Israel were well 
pleased. For they saw at a glance, that if adopted, it must be 
as successful as it was decisive. 

But there was another honorable counsellor at hand, whose 
opinion was worth being heard on this important occasion. 
And probably with a view to confirm what had already been 
said and agreed upon, as well as out of deference to so distin- 
guished an adherent, Absalom calls him in to hear what he will 
say. This was Hushai the Archite, well known hitherto as a 
fast friend of David, but who, that very evening, at the request 
of the king, had left him, returned to Jerusalem, held an inter- 
view with Absalom, and given in his adhesion to the usurper. 
He it is, that now appears in the council, at the very juncture 
when AhithophePs counsel is on the point of being carried, and 
by invitation rises to give his opinion. We can easily imagine 
how he felt, and almost how he looked under the keen search- 
ing glances of the selfish, ambitious, black-hearted men, who 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 147 

I 

were already thirsting for the blood of their old king, and now 
reluctantly paused to give an impatient hearing to this new 

comer. 

— "He rose, and in his rising seemed 

A pillar of state ; deep on his front engraven, 

Deliberation sat and public care ; 

And princely counsel in his face yet shone." 

Never did an orator stand up under more embarrassing cir- 
cumstances. Never did an orator undertake a more difficult 
or dangerous task. At heart the fast friend of David, though 
professing allegiance to Absalom, he stands there in the midst 
of violent, unprkicipled men, and by one wrong word, he may 
not only sink the cause of his master but forfeit his own life. 
But he sees that a crisis has come ; he must speak now, or 
never, for David. He sees with the clear intuition of an experi- 
enced statesman, that if AhithophePs counsel is followed, all is 
lost ; David^s kingdom and his life will have perished together 
beiore to-morrow^s sun. His grand object then is to gain time 
— time enough for David to make his escape beyond the 
Jordan. To do this he must, by some kind of argument or 
appeal, defeat the counsel of Ahithophel — that counsel which 
no man had ever defeated before — that counsel which, being 
followed, had never been known to fail — that counsel of which 
the Bible says — ^' it was as if a man had inquired at the oracle 
of God." 

And most skillfully did he accomplish the task. His speech 
shows a consummate knowledge of human nature — a perfect 
insight into the secret motives and springs of action of the 
men whom he addresses. He seems to have discerned at a 
glance, if he did not know already, the precise mental and 
moral calibre of the men with whom he now has to deal. If 



148 ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY 

we had no other information touching the character of 
Absalom, this speech would furnish the key by which to read 
him through and through. He does not attack a single princi- 
ple advanced by Ahithophel, nor object to a single position 
except one — the bare question of expediency. That he knew 
was the only principle which weighed a feather in the minds of 
his auditors. He makes no appeal to any feeling of filial love, 
or of natural compassion, in order to win for David a milder 
fate, or a single day of grace : because he knew that every 
heart in that assembly was utterly dead to any such appeal. 
Self-love and indulgence, vanity and ambition, were the govern- 
ing instincts of Absalom and his band. So Hushai sees that 
he must gain his point by gaining these. Accordingly he makes 
such an appeal to their hopes and fears — he so depicts the 
perils of a night attack, so paints the well remembered prowess 
of David and his men of war, making them feel that they 
might fall into a very den of lions by the way, and so sets 
before them the glory of a general battle with all Israel in the 
field, and Absalom as commander-in-chief — that they begin to 
wonder at the rashness of AhithophePs policy of a pursuit at 
night, and to think that there will be not only safety, but even 
glory in delay. His speech is an argument grounding itself 
upon facts — well known, incontestable facts — but appealing to 
the imagination and to all the passions that swayed the souls 
of his hearers. 

The speech itself is on record, all embraced in seven verses in 
the second book of Samuel. It is so brief, so ingenious, so 
effective, so masterly every way, and withal so seldom read, 
that we must now quote it entire, hoping that you will take an 
early opportunity to examine it in the Bible at your leisure. 
We shall give it just as it stands in our Bibles, only interposing a 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 149 

word or two here and there, to complete or elucidate the mean- 
ing, which words will be readily distinguished. 

^^ And Hushai said, the counsel that Ahithophel hath given 
Is not good at this time. For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy 
father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are 
(even now) chafed in their minds as a bear robbed of her 
whelps in the field ; and thy father is a man of war, and will 
not lodge with the people (unguarded and exposed). Behold he 
is hid now in some pit, or in some other place (well defended 
and safe) ; and it will come to pass, when some of them (who 
would pursue him) be overthrown at the first, that whosoever 
heareth it, will say, there is a slaughter among the people that 
follow Absalom. And (then) he also that is vahant, whose 
heart is as the heart of a lion shall utterly melt : for all Israel 
knoweth that thy father is a mighty man, and they that are 
with him are valiant men. Therefore I counsel, that all Israel, 
be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beersheba, 
as the sand that is by the sea for multitude : and that thou go 
to battle in thine own person (getting to thyself all the glory 
of a conqueror). So shall we come upon him in some place 
where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew 
falleth on the ground ; and of him and of all the men that are 
with him, there shall not be left so much as one. Moreover, if 
he be gotten into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that 
city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one 
small stone found there." 

For aught we know, this may be but the brief outline of the 
speech, which the consummate orator filled up at length : for 
it is easy to see with what power of argument, imagination 
and passion he might have dwelt on each successive idea. Or 
these may be all the words he uttered — his looks, tones, 



150 ELOQUENCE AND ORATORY 

gestures and pauses doing all the rest. But short or long, when 
his speech was ended, his vfork was done. The triumph was 
complete. The effect was overwhelming. ^' Then Absalom 
and all the men of Israel said, the counsel of Hushai the Archite 
is better than the counsel of Ahithophel." And by way of 
solution for an issue so wonderful, the sacred historian then 
adds, that the *^ Lord had appointed to defeat the good or wise 
counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord might bring 
evil upon Absalom." We need not pursue the narrative, you 
know the result : Absalom perished in that battle in which he 
had hoped to win the glory of a conqueror : and David was 
restored to his throne. But the single point on which all these 
great events hung, was the speech of Hushai — a speech perhaps 
onlv five minutes Ions; ! 

Now in these days of windy words and long speeches, when 
all men claim to be eloquent and talk by the hour, when 
oratory is often a compound of one grain of sense to a hundred 
weight of verbiage and nonsense, we are scarcely prepared to 
appreciate the power of so short a speech as this. Its heavy 
artillery is fired, not by the hour, but by the minute. The 
whole work of the orator was probably done in far less time 
than it has taken us to describe it. But never did human elo- 
quence win a more signal and triumphant victory. In force 
and brevity, it calls to mind the speeches of our own great 
Franklin, who is said never to have spoken above fifteen 
minutes on any occasion, and never to have lost a question on 
which he had spoken. We believe the Congress of our day, 
have discovered an exact mathematical formula for the expres- 
sion of oratory — adopting one hour as the maximum and mini- 
mum of every speech, on every subject great and small. 

This short speech of Hushai reminds us of an interesting 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 151 

passage in Macaulay^s History of England. In his account of 
the celebrated trial of the Seven Bishops — a trial which had 
drawn together the highest eloquence and genius and legal 
learning of the times, the historian speaks of a young lawyer, 
John Somers, who as yet had been unknown to fame. 
'^ Somers rose last. He spoke little more than five minutes, 
but every word was full of weighty matter ; and when he sat 
down, his reputation as an orator and a constitutional lawyer 
was established." The side on which he pleaded in that case, 
also gained the day. 

As it regards the great public interests which were at stake on 
this speech of Hushai, and the personal courage displayed by the 
orator, we hardly know where to find a parallel. The nearest that 
now recurs to us, though still differing in many points, is the 
celebrated speech of Patrick Henry in the Virginia House of Bur- 
gesses of 1765, when he offered the first resolution ever offered 
in America, against the British Stamp Act, and amidst cries of 
'* Treason ! Treason !" from all parts of the house, exclaimed, 
" Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George 
the Third may profit by their example." Who then could 
calculate, or who now, the precise amount of impression made 
by that single burst of eloquence upon the destiny of America 
and of the human race ? In like manner who can tell us 
what the history of Israel and of the world might have been, if 
the speech of Hushai had never been delivered in the council of 
Absalom ? 

But brief and powerful as was the plea of Somers on the 
Bishops' trial ; brief and effective as were the arguments of 
Franklin in our halls of legislation ; brief and sublime as were 
the orders of Napoleon or the harangues of Cromwell to his 
soldiers on the eve of battle ; brief, personal and fearless as 



152 THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 

was this warning of Henry in the house of Burgesses — still, 
when we weigh all the circumstances of brevity, difficulty, dan- 
ger, embarrassment, power and success, Hushai the Archite 
must be acknowledged to stand at the head of this kind of elo- 
quence — at once the father and the prince of all those orators, 
who, by a single speech, have changed the destiny of states and 
empires. 

This closes our survey of the eloquence and orators of the 
Old Testament. And with this, it will perhaps be best for us, 
though somewhat abruptly and contrary to the original design, 
to close the present chapter. The theme is so rich, and it has 
grown upon our hands, so far beyond any expectation enter- 
tained at the beginning of our review, that we cannot now, 
without crowding too much into a single chapter, present 
anything like an adequate, corresponding view of the eloquent 
orators of the New Testament. Here then let us pause, reserv- 
ing the eloquence of the New Testament for separate and fuller 
discussion in the next chapter. 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 153 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ELOaUENT ORATORS OP THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

Fxamples of Perverted Eloquence — Herod and Tertullus — Speech of Gamaliel — The Elo- 
quent ApoUos — Stephen's Address to the Council — Preaching of John the Baptist — 
Peter as an Orator — Speech of James before the Synod — The Recorder or Town- 
clerk of Ephesus — The Eloquence of Paul — Paul on Mars Hill — Discourses of our 
Jjord — Conclusion. 

Having had occasion to divide our subject into two parts, 
let us now proceed to an examination of the eloquent orators of 
the New Testament, in the light of those general character- 
istics and illustrations of eloquence which have already been 
pointed out. Amongst the multitude of public speakers who 
figure upon its pages, entitled to wear the starry crown of ora- 
tory, it must suf&ce to sketch only a few of the most prominent 
and remarkable examples. And for the sake of the contrast 
which it may furnish, let us begin with the case of those who 
claimed, but were not entitled to that crown : for here, as in 
almost every thing else, the Bible teaches by contrast, giving 
us samples of the bad mingled with the good and the noble. 



I. EXAMPLES OP PERVERTED ELOQUENCE — HEROD AND 

TERTULLUS. 

There are two, expressly mentioned as orators in the New 
Testament, who have gained the title only by their abuse of the 



154: THE ELOQUENT ORATOES 

gift, and whose names on the sacred pages enjoy only that kind 
of immortality which unusual infamy gives to the tyrant, or 
superlative baseness to the sycophantic sophist. They are king 
Herod and Tertullus — the one a tool in the hands of the wicked, 
the other a despot whose hands were stained with the blood of 
the righteous. In the twenty-fourth chapter of the book of 
Acts, we read of a ^'certain orator named Tertullus '^ — a Roman 
orator as the name indicates, who, hired by the Jewish priest- 
hood for the purpose, went down to Csesarea, to prosecute the 
Apostle Paul when he was on trial there before the Roman 
governor Felix. He was one of those special pleaders, to be 
found in every age, whose talents are offered for sale on all oc- 
casions to the highest bidder, and are easily purchased by 
wealth and power, regardless of truth or justice, right or 
wrong ; and who, from long practice as well as natural instinct, 
can always speak better on the side of falsehood than of truth. 
His object was to convict Paul of sedition, heresy and profana- 
tion ; and the weapon with which he attempted it, was flattery — 
foul and fulsome adulation of the noble virtues and worthy 
deeds and amiable character of Felix — a man who had once 
been the base-born freedman of the Emperor Claudius, and who 
now, according to Tacitus, '* exercised royal authority with the 
spirit of a slave, and indulged himself in every species of cruelty 
and lust." It is instructive to see how this specious rhetorician — 
this fit descendant of the father of lies — this hanger-on to the 
skirts of men in power — this disgrace of a noble profession, 
thought, by bending the supple hinges of the knee, and by the 
smooth and oily common-places of flattery, to carry the day, as 
it were by implication, against such a man as Paul ! 

But as the result proved, the eloquence of Tertullus was no 
match for PauFs, even at the corrupt bar of Felix. There is 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 155 

not a finer contrast in all the Bible than is here presented be 
tween the Apostle's dignified and manly defence, and this low 
judicial fawning of his mercenary accuser. Doubtless many 
persons, have thought the eloquence of Rome to be vastly 
superior to the eloquence of Jerusalem. But on this, the only 
occasion where we have ever seen the two in conflict, it is clear, 
that the Hebrew won a perfect triumph over the Roman ora- 
tor. We must not however do Rome the injustice to take Ter- 
tuUus as a fair sample of her oratory. Indeed the world would 
never have heard of him but for Paul. His name lives on the 
page of sacred history by an unexpected immortality, because 
linked with a man whom it was his trade to destroy ; so that 
'* a certain TertuUus " becomes, without a rival, the Tertullus 
and the sycophant of the New Testament forevermore. With 
a name as euphonious as that of Tully, he has come down to 
us distinguished as the Scripture type and representative of all 
that class of slack-twisted special pleaders who are eloquent for 
pay, and whose eloquence finds vent in a hypocritical adulation 
of the possessors of wealth and power. 

The other example of perverted eloquence is that of King 
Herod, recorded in the twelfth chapter of Acts. This cruel 
and ambitious tyrant, whose hands were stained with the blood 
of the Apostle James, and would have been stained with 
Peter's also, but for his miraculous deliverance from prison, 
seems to have possessed, in a high degree, the gift of popular 
eloquence ; at least in a high degree for a king. For we are 
informed by the sacred writer, that, ''upon a set day, Herod, 
arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne and made an 
oration unto the men who had come from Tyre and Sidon. 
And the people gave a shout, saying. It is the voice of God, 
and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord 



156 THE ELOQUENT OKATOES 

smote him, because he gave not God the glory ; and he was 
eaten up of worms and gave up the ghost." 

Who can read this account without feeling that it is a fear- 
ful thing to abuse the gift of eloquence, without feeling that the 
Almighty hath set the seal of his hottest displeasure upon the 
man who does so ? This horrible fate— perhaps the most horri- 
ble and shocking recorded in the Bible, seems to have fallen 
upon Herod, to give the world a warning of the awful responsi- 
bility which those incur, who prostitute to base and selfish 
purposes, the noble endowments of eloquence. In his vanity, 
and pride, and royalty, he had, like Nebuchadnezzar of old, 
though with far less excuse, blasphemously arrogated to him- 
self the prerogatives of deity. Instead of rending his clothes, 
restraining the people, and giving God the glory, as Paul and 
Barnabas did at Lystra, when the priests of Jupiter and Mer- 
cury cried, '* The gods have come down among men," and were 
about to offer sacrifices to them — Herod receives, unrebuked, 
the idolatrous shout of the multitude, *^It is the voice of God, 
and not of man." It was probably the very homage he had 
courted. And for receiving it without rebuke, he was rebuked 
from heaven, so as to stand to all posterity, like Absalom and 
Catiline, and Mirabeau and Burr, a very name for blasted ambi- 
tion and talents thrown away. There is nothing in the history 
of man, which Divine Providence has more frequently and 
signally frowned upon, than this vain-glorious self-idolatry. 
Nebuchadnezzar thought himself almost a God, because of 
' great Babylon which he had built ;" and he was driven out, be- 
reft of reason, to find a shelter among the beasts of the field. 
Alexander wished the world to think him a god, because he 
had conquered it ; and soon reaped a just reward in dying, '' as 
the fool dieth," by drunkenness. Napoleon tried the same experi- 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 157 

ment of self-deification, in modern times, and while he thought 
that destiny was his own, Divine providence was only spreading 
around him those meshes which at last caught and caged him 
forever. So on a scale infinitely smaller, this blood-stained 
Herod deemed himself worthy to be called a god, because he 
had made a great speech ; and for it he was devoured by 
worms. You remember, that the temptation held out as a bait 
at the commission of the first sin in Eden, was — " ye shall be 
as gods :" and ever since that day, whenever this experiment of 
pride has been repeated, the Providence of God has poured con- 
tempt upon the argument of Satan, by leaving those who would 
be gods to become fools or brutes. Well did the ancient pro- 
phet say — " Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither 
let the mighty man glory in his might ; let not the rich man 
glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in the 
Lord." 

II. THE SPEECH OF GAMALIEL. 

But let US notice next the speech of Gamaliel before the 
^reat Sanhedrim, the highest council of the Jews, when the 
Apostles, a little after the day of Pentecost, were arrested 
and brought before that body for trial. This speech, as 
recorded, was exceedingly brief, all being comprised in five 
verses ; but it is one, which, by its spirit of moderation as well 
as by the truth of its sentiments, reflects great credit upon its 
author. It is full of practical common sense, sound views of 
policy, and faith in the overruling providence of God ; whilst 
its doctrine of religious toleration must have been greatly in 
advance of the times. The speech is an argument, sustained 
by several historical cases, for letting the Apostles alone, or 



168 THE ELOQUENT ORATOES 

leaving them to the providence of God, under the conviction 
that their doctrine, if of men, would soon come to naught, but 
if of God, could not be successfully resisted. Jew as he was, 
and a Pharisee of the highest style, his mind seems very clearly 
to have grasped that grand truth of political and ecclesiastical 
philosophy, which the church and the world have been so slow 
to learn — that persecution can never put down a good cause, 
and is always sure to help a bad one. When we read this wise 
and moderate speech, we wonder how such a persecutor as Saul 
of Tarsus could have proceeded from the school of such a 
master. This, however, may be but another illustration of the 
very common fact, that the public speeches of great men may be 
much better than their practice or their creed. Be this, how- 
ever, as it may, the address of Gamaliel to the council, on the 
present occasion, was a noble and successful effort on the side 
of right and justice, well worthy of the man who was univer- 
sally regarded by his countrymen as the most learned and dis- 
tinguished doctor of the law then living. 

It evidently saved the Apostles from further imprisonment, 
and most likely from death at the instant. For when Gamaliel 
rose to speak, the body was filled with rage and clamoring for 
their destruction. We have only to consider the materials of 
which that body was composed, and the circumstances under 
which the speaker interposed his counsel, to see how great 
must have been his weight of character and weight of words, 
to bring about such a result as their release. Gamaliel was a 
Pharisee, whilst the Sadducean party now had a majority and 
a great ascendency in the Sanhedrim, and were greatly exas- 
perated with the Apostles for preaching that doctrine which 
they abhorred the most — the resurrection of the dead. The 
apostles who had been before them on a former occasion, not 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 159 

only preached that doctrine boldly to their faces, as they had 
done to all Jerusalem, but they had openly on both occasions 
set their authority at defiance, and charged them explicitly with 
the murder of Jesus. So that now they felt that something 
decisive must be done : and we are told, " they took counsel 
to slay them." At this critical juncture, Gamaliel, although 
belonging to a party in the minority, stood up and delivered 
his speech, which may be read at your leisure, and need not be 
recited now. He was as successful in changing the mind of this 
council as Hushai had been in changing the council of 
Absalom. Nothing can reveal more clearly the power of right 
words, and the influence of a wise counsellor, when brought to 
bear at the right time and place. When we know the temper 
of the body he had to address, and know the position he occu- 
pied there, we can only account for the fact stated at the close, 
that '* to him they agreed," by supposing, either that this was a 
speech of extraordinary power, or that the orator was a man 
of extraordinary character and influence. The latter, we know 
to have been true, and doubtless the former was also. We 
take this speech of Gamaliel, as an admirable example of what 
may be called deliberative eloquence — succinct, practical, cau- 
tious and effective. 

This is one of the rarest, as it is one of the noblest and most 
useful kinds of eloquence. Happy is the church, happy the nation, 
whose councils are adorned by the presence of these Nestors and 
Gamaliels of eloquence to direct, or hold in check the ardor of 
younger men ! This style of eloquence depends upon a clear, 
sound judgment, integrity of character, and, for the most part, 
the ripened experience of age. Such was the eloquence of 
Franklin. Such was the eloquence of Dr. Witherspoon, both 
in our civil and ecclesiastical councils, who waited till others 



160 THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 

had expressed their opinions, and then, *' in a consise, clear and 
forcible manner, gave his views, and generally with a unani- 
mous result/' And such eloquence too was often heard in the 
calm clear voices of those two venerable men, so long associated 
in life and so little separated in their deaths — ^Drs. Miller and 
Alexander. 

III. ^THE ELOQUENT APOLLOS 

But it is time for us to approach another interesting branch 
of our subject — the eloquence of preaching and of the pulpit. 
As a matter of course it is in the New Testament that we find 
the highest models of this species of oratory. Because the 
preaching of the cross is called foolishness, and ^*it pleased 
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that be- 
lieve,'' we are not to infer, that there was nothing attractive 
and powerful in the eloquence of the Apostles and first preach- 
ers of Cliristianity. We know, that tbeir Divine master had 
promised to give them a ''mouth and wisdom which all their 
adversaries should not be able to gainsay nor resist." And so 
we find them in fact, speaking with a freedom and boldness 
from the very first, which astonished the rulers and councils 
before whom they were brought. If we had no direct testi- 
mony on the point, it would be natural to conclude, that men 
who spoke '' in demonstration of the spirit and with power," 
must have spoken eloquently. But we are not left to mere infer- 
ences. We know, for example, on the testimony of Scrip- 
ture, that Apollos was '* an eloquent man," although we have 
no report of any of his sermons. 

Apollos was one of the earhest ministers of the church of 
Corinth. So far as we are able to learn his character from a 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 161 

few brief notices on the sacred pages, lie seems to have some- 
what resembled the apostle Paul, in enthusiasm, eloquence and 
diversified learning. Paul mentions him more than once in his 
epistles. He rebukes the several parties in the Corinthian 
church for saying, ^' I am of Paul, and another I am of ApoUos, 
and another I am of Cephas ;" and asks, '* Who then is Paul, 
and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed ?" He 
then adds, " I have planted, Apollos watered, and God gave 
the increase." From this alone it is evident that Apollos was a 
faithful and succesful minister of the gospel. But we have a 
much fuller account of him in the Acts of the Apostles. We 
there read, that " a certain Jew, Apollos, born at Alexandria, 
an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephe- 
sus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord ; and 
being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the 
things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he 
began to speak boldly in the synagogues, whom when Aquila 
and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and ex- 
pounded to him the way of the Lord more perfectly. And 
when he was come unto Achaia, he helped them much, who 
had believed through grace. For he mightily convinced the 
Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus 
was the Christ." 

Being thus a Jew by birth, and a native of Alexandria, the 
seat of Egyptian learning, and enjoying, like Paul, the double 
advantage of being deeply read in the Jewish scriptures and 
in the literature of foreign countries (if, as it is natural to do, 
we suppose him also to have been acquainted with Grecian 
learning, as he was with Jewish and Egyptian), he must have 
been eminently fitted to exercise his ministry in the refined cities 
of Ephesus and Corinth. Possessing also an eloquent tongue, and 
as we infer from the narrative, unusual powers of reasoning, he 



lo2^ THE ELOQUENT ORATOKS 

must hare been eminently successful as a preacher. It is not 
wonderful, thus endowed, that he should be mentioned as hold- 
ing rank with the apostles Paul and Cephas in the public esti- 
mation at Corinth. He belongs to a class of characters men- 
tioned in Scripture of whom just enough is known to excite 
curiosity and make us greatly desire to know more. All that 
we know of him, though little, is very good ; and from this it 
is safe to infer that Apollos was one of the most eloquent 
and accomplished preachers of the primitive church 



IV. — Stephen's address to the council. 



Going back, somewhat, in the order of events, we find 
another name, worthy of honorable mention on the roll of 
New Testament orators. It is that of Stephen, one of the first 
deacons, and the very first martyr, of the Christian church. 
Though not immediately called by his ofiice to preach the gos- 
pel, yet he appears, very soon after being appointed a deacon, 
to have engaged in the discussions of the synagogue, where he 
reasoned with the people, and defended the cause of his Mas- 
ter with such wisdom and spirit, that his opponents, unable to 
answer him or put him down by words, hurried him away for 
condemnation to the great council. His speech before that 
body, on the charge of blasphemy, as alleged by suborned wit- 
nesses, was delivered in answer to the question of the high 
priest, its presiding officer — ^' Are these things so V^ In the 
apprehension of all present, who had heard the awful charges, 
that question was virtually a demand, why sentence of death 
should not be passed against him ; for their law had but one 
punishment for such a crime when proved. 

We know not what his whole argument would have been, if 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 163 

he liad not been interrupted ; but if we may judge by that 
part of it which he was permitted to deliver, it must have been 
a sublime and eloquent vindication. Interrupted as it was, it 
fills up the whole of the seventh chapter of the Acts, and with 
the exception of some of our Saviour's discourses, it has the dis- 
tinction of being the longest speech recorded in the Bible. Paul, 
then a young man, was present and heard it, and had probably 
himself been disputing with Stephen in the synagogue. Paul, no 
doubt remembering it well long afterwards, communicated it to 
Luke, who was thus enabled to report it accurately and fully. 
The speech evidently glows with all the enthusiasm of elo- 
quence. Though the speaker was fully aware of his perilous 
position — that on his words his life hung as by a thread — ^yet 
he betrays no indication of embarrassment, or haste or fear. 
With the utmost deference to the rulers who sat to judge him, 
and with perfect self-possession, he takes for his theme '^ the 
God of Glory,'' and with devout and patriotic ardor, traces 
the long line of his providences towards '^ the seed of Abraham 
his chosen." 

Before such an audience, who can imagine a more thrilling 
theme, or a more exciting scene. Arraigned to answer for his 
life to the charge of blasphemy against Moses and the law, and 
the God of Israel — brought to the bar of that august Sanhe- 
drim, whose long white beards and robes of office gave it the 
aspect of infallible wisdom — inspired himself with a wisdom 
more than mortal under the teachings of the Holy Ghost — he 
stood, as his Saviour had done in that same presence, calm, 
serene, self-composed and trusting in God — his face shining as 
it had been the face of an angel, his eye lifted up to those hea- 
vens, where a little after he saw Jesus standing on the right 
hand of the eternal throne, his vcice rising and swelling respon- 



164: THE ELOQUENT ORATOKS 

sive to all the deep emotions of a soul filled with the love of 
Christ. Suddenly, and apparently in the midst of his discourse, 
he changes his tone into one of severe rebuke. At this point, 
says Dr. Dick, *' It is probable that his hearers gave signs of 
impatience ; and Stephen perceiving that they were about to 
interrupt him, seized the moments which remained to him, to 
tell them a few unwelcome truths, which would serve as his 
dying testimony against the incorrigible enemies of his Saviour." 
Accordingly, he makes no allusion to the charges preferred 
against himself, but lays at their own door the much more 
awful charge of having murdered the Son of God. Feeling 
that the cause of truth demanded such fidelity, whatever might 
be the consequence to himself, he bursts forth into the follow- 
ing terrible invective : *' Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in 
heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost : as your 
fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your 
fathers persecuted ? and they have slain them which showed 
before of the coming of the Just One ; of whom ye have been 
betrayers and murderers ; who have received the law by the 
disposition of angels and have not kept it." 

This was more than they could bear. No Gamaliel, even 
had he been present, and so disposed, was then able to pour 
into their counsels a spirit of moderation and wisdom. All 
further formalities of law were stopped. They could not wait 
to take a vote. They were clamorous for blood. Says the 
record, " They were cut to the heart, and gnashed on him with 
their teeth. They cried out with a loud voice, stopped their 

ears and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of 

• 

the city and stoned him." And as if to mark the greatness of 
the contrast between the bigoted rage of the persecutor and the 
peaceful spirit of the victim, the sacred writer adds : " He 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 165 

called upon God, saying, ' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ;' and 
kneeling down he cried with a loud voice, ' Lord, lay not this 
sin to their charge.' And when he said this, he fell asleep." 
Glorious termination of a brief and glorious life ! The historic 
page recounts many scenes of thrilling eloquence, in life and in 
death. But out of the Bible, it contains no record of a voice 
more eloquent, even to the last agonies of death, than Stephen's. 
And when that bold and eloquent tongue lay silent in the dust, 
it was only to receive a crown of martyrdom which shall last 
forever. As he fell asleep in Jesus and the last prayerful 
accents of the living voice died away, another voice of eloquence 
that never dies, began to plead, and by it, he being dead yet 
speaketh. His example took up the unfinished argument of his 
lips, and bore it down to every successive generation. The 
classic Greeks showed their appreciation of eloquence by giving 
it an apotheosis amongst the immortal gods : but here in the 
early death and heroic martyrdom of Stephen, eloquence found 
a different and truer apotheosis. 



v. PREACHING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

But leaving this true-hearted speaker in all the glory of his 
early martyrdom, and going still farther back in the sacred his- 
tory, we hear the voice of another bold advocate of truth and 
reprover of wickedness in high places — the first indeed that is 
heard in the .opening pages of the New Testament. It is the 
voice of one who, for a season, was held in universal admiration, 
as the greatest prophet, preacher, and reformer of the times. 
It is that long-expected voice, which breaks forth from the 
wilderness of Judea, crying, ^' Prepare ye the way of the Lord, 



166 THE ELOQUENT 0EAT0R8 

make his paths straight," and is heard again on the banks of 
the Jordan, pointing out the Messiah and saying, '' Behold the 
Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." It is 
John the Baptist, the connecting link of two dispensations — the 
last and greatest prophet of the old, the first and most honored 
preacher of the new, in whom the law uttered its voice of thun- 
der mingled with the sweet music of a gospel of repentance and 
peace. 

We have no detailed report of the preaching of John ; but 
we have many short extracts, varying in length from one verse 
to ten, which seem to be taken from his speeches on different 
occasions, and, as in a nutshell, to contain the substance of his 
preaching. Judging from these, as well as from the testimony 
of our Saviour to his eminence, and from the deep impression 
made on the public mind of the nation, we must conclude, that 
there was something unusually powerful and effective in the dis- 
courses of this preacher of the desert. It is recorded as the 
saying of the people on one occasion, that, ** John did no mira- 
cle ;" so that the whole effect of his ministry must be ascribed 
under God to his character as a prophet and his eloquence as a 
preacher ; and this effect, we know, was so great, that all the 
people were in expectation concerning him, '' musing in their 
hearts if he were not the Christ f their highest authorities were 
willing for a reason to rejoice in him, as '' a burning and shin- 
ing light," and even the wicked Herod '* did many things and 
heard him gladly." 

Now, in speaking of John and other preachers of the New 
Testament as eloquent orators, we do not wish to convey to 
your minds the impression, that their sole power, or even their 
chief power, lay in their gifts of eloquence. We have no desire 
to ascribe any undue influence and importance to their natural 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 167 

endowments, to tlie disparagement of those which were super- 
natural. We wish you always to remember that all these inspir- 
ed preachers, just like the poets of the Bible, would have been 
nothing and could have done nothing successfully in their great 
work, though they had spoken with the tongues of men and 
of angels, without the grace of God and the power of the Holy 
Ghost. Still it is just as true, that they had natural endow- 
ments, as that they had these high spiritual and miraculous 
endowments. And God wrought in them by the one as well as 
by the other. For the most part, these mighty, superhuman gifts 
and endowments found utterance and expression through the 
medium of those faculties and attainments which they possessed 
cither by nature or education. And we are not to think that 
their speech was any the less real, persuasive, eloquent, effec- 
tive human speech, fitted to melt the heart and move the will, 
because they often spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave 
them utterance. So far from disparaging the eloquence of the 
New Testament then, because its orators spoke with an inspira- 
tion direct from heaven, we ought rather to exalt its power and 
influence because it possessed this Divine element. This Divine 
influence left John, and Stephen and Apollos, as free to exer- 
cise all their natural gifts, and to use all the arts of persuading 
men, as if they had been under no such afflatus. Let no one 
object then to the application of the term eloquent to their 
preaching. And when we attribute to such preaching, the 
usual effects of great and powerful eloquence, let no one imagine 
we are making void the grace and power of God. We are 
only magnifying the power of that grace which can employ the 
tongue of the eloquent, as it employs other things, for the 
accomplishment of its grand designs. 

Great must have been the power of eloquence, in John's case, 



168 THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 

destitute as he was of the power of working miracles, to draw 
together the vast multitudes of all ranks and classes of the peo- 
ple that crowded to his baptism. Clothed as he was in the 
garb of one of the old prophets, much no doubt of his popular- 
ity and power would be due to the estimation in which the 
people held a character so awful and sublime. But as there 
had been no great prophet in Israel for four hundred years, and 
as John was yet a young man of thirty, how could his title to 
the prophetic office be established so soon and so universally ? 
The only answer seems to be in the extraordinary character of 
his preaching. By his bold, energetic, authoritative, heart- 
searching eloquence, as a preacher of righteousness and a teacher 
come from God, and by this alone, could he establish thus easily 
his mission as a prophet in Israel. Nothing less than this could 
have attracted from their homes and their business the myriads 
of people that waited upon his ministry on the banks of the 
Jordan. For we are told that all Jerusalem and all Judea, and 
all the region around, went out to him there. Short as it is, 
enough remains to us of the preaching in which he warned that 
generation of vipers to flee from the wrath to come, besides the 
fact that he at last fell a victim for his fidelity in reproving 
vice, to convince us that John must have possessed, in a remark- 
able degree, the. attributes of a great popular orator. 

Gilfillan speaks of him thus : '' He attended no school of the 
prophets, he sat at the feet of no Gamaliel ; but among the 
rocks and the caves, and the solitudes of the wilderness, he 
extracted the sublime and stern spirit of his office. The tame- 
less torrent, dashing by, taught him his eloquence. The visions 
of God furnished him with his theology. He had indeed no 
rhythmic utterance, and figurative flights : but he had the dress, 
the spirit, the power, the wild-eyed fervor, and the boldness of 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 169 

his prototypes : and hence the wilderness of Jordan rang to 
his voice, Jadea was struck to the heart at his appearance, and 
Jerusalem went out as one man to his baptism/' 

This description may be in part true ; but there is much 
more probable truth in the opinion of Dr. Kitto, that John 
being of the tribe of Levi, an only son, and withal a child of 
so much promise at his birth, had received the very best pro- 
fessional education his country could afford ; and that he 
retired to the wilderness for meditation, according, to the custom 
of the times, only a few years prior to his entering on the great 
mission of his life ; where he indeed remained, sustained chiefly 
by locusts and wild honey, till the day of his showing unto 
Israel. 

But we must not dwell too long on this interesting and 
remarkable character — combining at once all the highest excel- 
lences of prophet, preacher and reformer, in the life of a young 
man. With his name we are accustomed to associate the Q-reat 
and good of other times. We think of this light of a dark 
age, this harbinger of the Messiah's advent, in connection with 
those morning stars of the great reformation — Wickliffe, 
Jerome, and John Huss. There was something also of the 
same noble daring, and singleness of purpose, and energetic 
eloquence in Luther and Calvin. But perhaps the nearest 
approximation to his spirit, and character, and work, which the 
ministry of modern times has ever presented, was exemplified in 
the stern heroic preaching of Scotland's great reformer, John 
Knox. 



8 



170 THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 



VI. PETER AS AN ORATOR. 

But what shall we say of the preaching of the Apostle 
Peter ? He stands forth prominently in the whole evangelical 
history as one of the greatest public speakers of the New 
Testament. During the life of Christ, we find him the foremost 
speaker on all occasions ; and after the ascension, he seems to 
have stood forward the acknowledged leader and advocate of 
the apostolic band, whenever their cause needed to be publicly 
defended. From the bold promptitude and ready facility with 
which he expressed his opinions, as well as from the ardent 
enthusiasm that marked his character, it is obvious that he was 
by nature endowed with many of the best gifts of eloquence. 
The two sons of Zebedee, were called by our Saviour, '* Boan- 
erges," or " sons of thunder ;" which would lead us to suppose 
that they too must have possessed, in high degree, at least some 
of the characteristics of eloquence. But notwithstanding this, 
we find Peter, wherever public speaking was called for, taking 
precedence of James and John, as he did of all the rest. 

In the Acts of the Apostles, we find reports, more or less 
full, of some nine or ten of the discourses delivered by Peter, 
at different times, to the people or their rulers, or to his 
brethren of the church. For example, we have his address to 
the company of a hundred and twenty disciples immediately 
after the ascension of Jesus ; his longer discourse on the day 
of Pentecost ; his speech to the multitude in Solomon's porch, 
in connection with John, at the healing of the lame man ; his 
defence before the council on the day following, and another 
similar defence not long afterwards ; his awful rebuke of 
Ananias and Sapphira at Jerusalem, and also of Simon Magus 



OF THK NEW TESTAMENT. 171 

the sorcerer at Samaria ; his sermon before Cornehus and his 
household at Csesarea, the first sermon to the Gentiles ; his 
subsequent vindication of that matter before the brethren of 
the church ; and last of all, his speech in the first .general 
Synod of Jerusalem on the observance of the ceremonial law 
among the gentile converts. In all of these, as also in his two 
general epistles, we find many striking iudications of that natu- 
rally vigorous intellect and high-toned eloquence which so often 
burst forth in the presence of the Master. There was not a 
little of the heroic and sublime in that calm and dignified pro- 
test to the council, when forbidden to preach any more under 
pain of imprisonment or death : *' Whether it be right in the 
sight of God, to hearken unto you, more than unto God, judge 
ye ; for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen 
and heard." 

But the most remarkable and effective of all these, was his 
discourse on the day of Pentecost, which, along with the labors 
of his • colleagues, resulted in the conversion of three thousand 
souls. Of course it is not to be understood that these conver- 
sions were the work of Peter's eloquence, except so far as that 
eloquence was inspired of God, and blessed of God, as an instru- 
ment in the hands of the Divine Spirit. No real conversion on 
that, or on anv other occasion, is the work of mere human 
oratory. Peter may have been, and probably was, an eloquent 
man all his life ; and when inspired of God, as he was on the 
day of Pentecost, even that natural eloquence must have 
appeared immeasurably more eloquent than it ever did before 
But no eloquence of Peter's, whether natural or inspired, could 
ever convert a sinner without the special and direct agency of 
the Holy Ghost. On the other hand, it is at the same time true, 
that God, who works by the most appropriate means in effect- 



172 THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 

ing human salvation, just as he does in other things, employs 
the tongue of the eloquent in saying men. And although there 
was the direct miraculous agency of the Holy Ghost on the 
day of Pentecost, accompanied by visible signs and mighty 
wonders — cloven tongues of fire and new languages which they 
had never learned — still it was by the preaching of Peter and 
the eleven associates — ^their bold, faithful, pointed, heart-search- 
ing proclamation of the truth as it is in Jesus — that three 
thousand souls were added to the church on that memorable 
day. 

And when in the annals of Christianity did any sermon, or 
as we should rather say, set of sermons, on a single day, produce 
so large a result ? If eloquence may be measured by its fruits, 
this day^s preaching of the inspired Apostles must stand without 
a parallel in the annals of preaching. It was indeed a day of 
Pentecost to Christianity — -a glorious ingathering of her first 
fruits. And God seems thus early to have established a pre- 
cedent and a model for the preachers and the churches of all 
coming generations. 

Now you may be familiar with the achievements of pulpit 
eloquence in modern times ; you may have read with what 
breathless interest, all classes of people, the great and the 
learned, as well as the poor and unlettered, hung upon the lips 
of Whitfield, of Chalmers, of Edward Irving, of Robert Hall; 
how vast audiences were electrified, and half entranced by the 
beseeching music of the voice, when uttered by young men like 
Summerfield or Larned ; how congregated thousands were 
alternately bathed in tears and striken down in terror in the 
powerful revivals of Jonathan Edwards, or of the old divines 
of Scotland ; how a grand assemblage of corrupt and courtly 
auditors were made to start to their feet instinctively, as over 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 173 

the mortal remains of Louis XI Y. Massillon pronounced the 
words — ^* God only is great f but after all these and a thousand 
kindred triumphs of the pulpit, the conversion of three thou- 
sands souls in one day from the ranks of men whose hands were 
stained so recently with the blood of Jesus, must still remain 
as the greatest achievement ever made by the eloquence of 
the pulpit. You may, if you please, dispute the claims of the 
Bible orators to superiority in other departments ; but there 
can be no dispute here. There has been no preaching on earth, 
so eloquent, so powerful, so triumphant, so sublime as that 
which the Bible records. 



VII. SPEECH OF JAMES BEFORE THE SYNOD OP JERUSALEM. 

We may notice next, as a fine example of dignified, delibera- 
tive eloquence, the speech of the apostle James, before the first 
general council of Jerusalem, the substance of which is reported 
in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts. This is not James, the 
brother of John, for he had already been put to death by the 
sword of Herod ; but that James who wrote the general epis- 
tle, whom Paul calls the '^ brother of our Lord,'' and who was 
distinguished amongst his contemporaries by the title of "James 
the Just." It is remarkable that nothing remains in the New 
Testament of any of the sermons of the brothers, James and 
John, though as " sons of thunder," they must have acted a 
conspicuous part in preaching the Gospel. It is well observed 
by a recent writer, in regard to these brothers, as showing 
how difi'erent may be the career of usefulness to which Christ 
calls his ministers, that " one died before the middle of the 
first Christian century, the other lived to its close ; one 



174: THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 

of them was called to lay down his life, the iBrst martyr of the 
twelve, almost before the gospel had been preached out of Jeru- 
salem ; whilst the other outlived all the band, saw the gospel 
established in every land, and at last died in peace." Little 
did their ambitious mother dream of the strange but glorious 
destiny that awaited the one and the other, when she asked 
that her two sons might sit on the right hand and the left of 
the throne of Jesus ! 

But to return to the other James ; he seems, as an apostle, 
to have exercised his ministry at Jerusalem ; for many years, to 
have been a man of great weight in counsel, and probably to 
have been the president or moderator of the synod just referred to. 
On the solemn and important questions which had to be decid- 
ed at that meeting, we are told there had been much contro- 
versy. In the synod itself there was no little disputation ; for 
the main question at issue, touching the binding authority of 
the law of Moses upon the gentile churches, was one of no little 
perplexity to men educated as they had been. Several had 
advanced their opinions. Peter bad delivered a short speech 
full of practical wisdom and sound but liberal doctrines. Paul 
and Barnabas, who had brought the question up from Antioch, 
had each in turn addressed the assembly, declaring all the won- 
derful things God was working among the Gentiles. James 
waited till all were done, and then spoke. His antecedents 
were of such a character as might have inclined him to take 
the side of a rigid adherence to the Mosaic institutions. But his 
mind seems at once to have grasped the true doctrine as already 
expounded by Peter, who had received a revelation on the sub- 
ject. He gives his opinion in accordance with that view, ad- 
ducing arguments from Scripture to support it. The speech, as 
reported, is short, but full of weighty matter. It seems to have 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 175 

reconciled all conflicting views of both parties, and its senti- 
ments, with almost its very words, were immediately adopted and 
sent forth to the churches in the form of a decree of the council. 
This whole case is one of great interest to us, because it 
shows how even the inspired Apostles, who had received direct 
revelations from the Lord, had still to use their natural facul- 
ties and bring together their united wisdom, in arriving at the 
knowledge of the truth on many important points. We see 
them meeting with the elders of the church, consulting, delib- 
erating, debating, and at last coming to a unanimous decision, 
which was the result of conference — mind meeting: mind in ar- 
gument, opinion modifying opinion in counsel, and truth ex- 
plaining and enlarging truth, when thus laid together. Instead 
of giving a special revelation on the subject, or rather, after 
he had given such a revelation to one of them, the Lord saw 
fit to leave them to discover the whole truth by the ordinary 
means of mutual conference and consultation. 



VIII. — THE RECORDER OR TOWN-CLERK OF EPHESUS. 

Let us turn now to an example of public speaking altogether 
different from any we have yet contemplated ; for it is re- 
markable how diversified are the styles of oratory exemplified 
in the New Testament. This is an address, delivered to a col- 
lection of the people which had all the characteristics of an in- 
furiated, ungovernable mob. It must be acknowledged that it 
requires talents of a peculiar order to address such an assem- 
bly. Perhaps the most difficult task which an orator ever es- 
says, is to oppose — successfully to oppose — the demands of an 
unreasoning, raging mob. It is worthy of remark, how many 



176 THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 

notices of the doings of such mobs we find in the New Testa- 
ment. It was a mob, that under color of the forms of law, 
crucified the son of God. It was a mob that more than once, 
in the streets of Jerusalem, took up stones to stone him. It 
was such a mob that, at Nazareth, led him to the brow of the 
hill whereon their city was built, intending to cast him down 
the precipice. It was a grave and dignified assembly, madly 
converting itself into a mob, that put Stephen to death. It 
was through mob violence that Paul was, in many places, ex- 
pelled from the synagogue, scourged and cast into prison ; and 
at one time stoned and left for dead. It was one of the 
most fierce and diabolical of mobs, that once rushed upon him 
in the temple of Jerusalem, casting off their clothes, throwing 
dust into the air, crying *' away with such a fellow from the 
earth," and purposing to tear him in pieces. 

But of all the mobs mentioned in the New Testament, this 
one at Ephesus is to us the most curious and instructive, as 
well from its being so graphically described and so near akin to 
the mobs of our own times, as from the remarkably adroit 
and sensible speech of the town-clerk who at last quelled it. 

You will get a wrong impression of the character of this 
ofl&cer, if you think of him only as a clerk or secretary of some 
petty court in Ephesus. In addition to his oflBce of recorder, 
or keeper of the archives of the city, he was, for the time being, 
a magistrate, and indeed the chief magistrate of Ephesus. His 
office, which was held for one year, corresponded very nearly 
with the office of mayor in one of our cities : so that the town- 
clerk was the highest presiding officer of that great city at the 
date of this occurrence. And with the knowledge of this fact, 
you will be better prepared to understand the reasons of that 
success with which he allayed so great a storm by so short a 



OF THE KEW TESTAMENT. 1 77 

speech. In virtne of his office, it was his right and duty to 
preside in the lawful assemblies of the people, and hence we 
find him acting so conspicuous a part at this unlawful and im- 
mense gathering in the Ephesian theatre. Dr. Kitto, from 
whom these particulars have been chiefly derired, tells us, that 
^' The theatre at Ephesus was the largest structure of the kind 
ever erected by the Greeks, and was capable of seating fifty 
thousand persons. It was excavated from the sloping side of 
mount Prion, looking towards the west, and was faced with a 
portico. The exterior diameter was 660 feet. Like all other 
ancient theatres, it had no roof, but the spectators protected 
themselves from the sun by head-gear adapted for a screen, or 
by holding a light parasol in their hand, or sometimes a kind 
of tarpaulin was drawn across the theatre itself. Here the 
scenic representations were exhibited, and here were held the as- 
semblies of the people. This theatre is still discoverable by its 
ruins, which are of immense grandeur. Its interest to us arises 
from the certainty, with which it can be identified as the scene 
of one of PauPs most perilous conflicts." And here he adds — 
*' We witness a curious, but not unparalleled union, of the 
* great goddess Diana,' with the great god Self, whose worship 
still exists, though that of Diana is extinct." 

The vast multitude of craftsmen and others was headed by 
Demetrius, one of the chief manufacturers of " silver shrines of 
Diana." Having first filled the whole city with confusion, and 
sought in vain to find Paul, they caught two of his companions, 
and rushed with one accord into the theatre, rending the air 
with the .shout — " Great is Diana of the Ephesians." This 
wily and selfish man, who had raised all the uproar, was actu- 
ated by the basest motives of gam. But with the true instinct 
of a demagogue, he had contrived to cloak this love of filthy 

8* 



178 THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 

lucre, under the specious pretence of devotion to the glory of 
their presiding deity. His speech to his fellow-craftsmen, so 
loud in professions of concern for the temple of the great god- 
dess, whose ** magnificence not only Asia, but all the v/orld 
worshipped," is about the most finished specimen of the peculiar 
art of demagogism, to be found in ancient times. 

When the vast stream had poured itself into the theatre — 
some crying one thing and some another, and many not know- 
ing why they were there at all, but all ready for deeds of blood 
— Paul who had thus far kept out of the way, was informed of 
their proceedings ; and learning, that his two companions were 
in the hands of the mob, he determined to go himself and share 
their danger. Nothing in all the heroic history of that great 
apostle, more strikingly displays the noble generosity and high- 
souled courage of the man, than that he should dare to appear 
before such a mob. His brethren, knowing the peril, would 
not suffer it ; and in this purpose they were sustained by cer- 
tain of the chief men of Asia, or religious officers of the city, 
who were friends of Paul. 

In the meantime a Jew, named Alexander, probably with a 
view to shield his own countrymen from the fury now directed 
against the Christians, tried to get a hearing. He came for- 
ward, beckoning with the hand, and " would have made a de- 
fence to the people.'' But they had met for deeds, not words — 
they had come for execution and not speech-making. They 
only drowned his voice in a louder and longer cry of " Great is 
Diana of the Ephesians." This we are told they kept up, " all 
with one voice about the space of two hours." 

At this stage of affairs the recorder seems to have arrived ; 
or it may be, he was there before, waiting the favorable mo- 
ment to interpose with his authority. And when at length he 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 179 

had so far appeased the multitude as to gain a hearing, he de- 
livered that brief, and for such an occasion, admirable speech, 
which is recorded by Luke in six verses, every word of which 
was directly to the point, and full of strong common sense. We 
need not cite it here, as you can examine it at your leisure. 
But if we judge it from the stand-point of heathenism at which 
it was delivered, and try to fancy ourselves in the recorder's 
place, it is difficult to conceive how he could have acquitted him- 
self with more dignity, more wisdom and more success. He said 
precisely the right w^ords at precisely the right time. ** And 
when he had so spoken he dismissed the assembly." The one 
wise man had turned away the wrath of a multitude, and de- 
livered the city. There was an influence going out from the 
man of high official station over all the masses of that fierce 
mob ; but there was a much mightier influence going out from 
the words of wisdom which he uttered. It is not every city of 
a Christian land that is blest with so wise, so influential, so elo- 
quent a mayor as the town-clerk of Ephesus. Heathen though 
he was, he has the distinction of having his speech recorded on 
the sacred page. 

* IX — THE ELOQUENCE OF PAUL. 

But Paul — what shall we say, how shall we speak of Paul ? 
Where shall we find words to rise to the matchless majesty of 
such an orator as Paul ? Every association that clusters around 
his name inspires the mind with ideas of eloquence. Whatever 
he WTites, whenever he speaks, wherever he goes, his words 
and actions all burn with eloquence. He rises with ease and 
grandeur to the sublimest truths of revelation : and he bends 
with grace and dignity to the minutest details of daily life 



180 THE ELOQUEKT ORATORS 

and duty. Whatever subject lie touches, however lowly, or ob- 
scure, or commonplace, becomes at once radiant with the 
liglit of truth, and sublime through the inspirations of eloquence , 
There is, in the whole character and career of this great apostle, 
such a wideness of view, such a completeness of design, such a sus" 
tained and lofty bearing, such an assemblage of rare and noble 
attainments, that we scarcely know what to admire the most — 
whether Paul the man or Paul the minister — -Paul as theologian 
or as moral hero — as logician or as orator — as the champion of 
truth, or as the ruartyr of Christianity. It is no exaggeration, 
speaking of mere men, to call him the prince of preachers and the 
prince of moral heroes. And though he calls himself the least 
of the Apostles, it is manifest that in many respects he stands 
at the head of the list. Of mere men, there is no character 
in the Bible, except Moses, that deserves to be put in compar- 
ison with him — none that accomplished so much while living — 
none that after death has exerted so great an influence. Eegard- 
ed simply as a man of genius, apart from all his supernatural 
gifts, we suppose there was not a human mind to be found in all 
the length and breadth of the Roman world of his generation, 
more richly endowed with the attributes of greatness than PauPs. 
It would seem that Divine grace had so called him to his 
work, and so equipped and adorned him for it, as to give the 
world, in one living man, a specimen of the w^hole power of 
Christianity upon the character — to illustrate by example what 
human nature might become and might achieve when controlled 
and sanctified by grace. Excepting only the character of Jesus 
and the preaching of Jesus, there is no character nor voice of 
eloquence, even in the New Testament, which can stir all the 
depths of the soul to sympathy and admiration, like PauPs. 
Eighteen centuries have responded w^ith reiterated and increas- 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 181 

Ing applause to tliat eloquence ; eternity alone can disclose tlie 
influence of such a character and such a life. 

We need not speak now of that peculiar style of faraiUar 
yet elevated conversation — that earnest, importunate, enthusias- 
tic, authoritative talking, as it were face to face with the 
cb arches, which runs through all his Epistles, and distinguishes 
them as the most eloquent and effective letters that were 
ever penned. We need not speak of the unreported eloquence 
of those almost countless occasions, when in the synagogues of 
the Jews, before the temple shrines of the Greeks, in the 
streets, houses, and market places of the whole Roman Empire, 
from Jerusalem to Antioch, from Antioch to Athens, from 
Athens to Eome, he lifted up his voice with mighty reasonings 
to convince and persuade men. And we need not speak of 
that deeper eloquence of living and heroic deeds, which, in 
defiance of all opposition, uttered itself unceasingly in planting 
churches, and carrying the glad tidings of salvation to regions 
** where Christ had not been named.'' Let us pass over every- 
thing of this kind, to notice some of those pubhc discourses of 
the great apostle which, to some extent, have been recorded in 
the book of Acts. 

Besides brief addresses on different occasions, we find reports 
of six of his speeches, which are given at considerable length. 
And these were delivered under circumstances calculated to call 
forth his highest powers of eloquence. For instance, we have a 
long address, setting forth the way of life by the gospel, 
delivered to the men of Israel in the synagogue at Antioch : 
we have his short and masterly address to the men of Athens 
on Mars Hill : his pathetic farewell address to the elders of the 
Ephesian Church ; his bold and powerful speech to the mob of 
Jerusalem from the steps of the tower ; his dignified and tri- 



182 THE ELOQUENT ORATOKS 

iimphant vindication at Caesarea against the charge of Ter- 
tuUus ; and his sublime defence of himself and apology for 
Christianity before King Agrippa and the court of Festus. The 
world has justly ranked these six speeches amongst the noblest 
triumphs of pulpit eloquence. For although we have but a 
fragment on which to rest our judgment ; still it is easy, even 
from that, to see what the whole must have been. It is not 
easy, however, to decide which of the six is the master-piece, 
so perfectly adapted is each to the end which the speaker had 
in view. 

The last of them — the defence before King xigrippa and his 
royal sister Bernice, has generally been regarded as the most 
eloquent, which may be owing partly to its being reported at 
greater length than the others, and partly to the attending cir- 
cumstances. It was manifestly a speech of great power, aside 
from any consideration of the occasion that called it forth, or 
the impressions produced by it. But when we take all these 
into consideration, and think of the circumstances in which 
both the speaker and his auditors stood, it must be pronounced 
an effort of the very highest moral sublimity. Reflect a 
moment on the scene. 

Paul was a prisoner in bonds, still awaiting his trial, as he 
had been during two long years of delay, and now at last appeal- 
ing for a hearing to the bar of Augustus at Rome. Just at 
this time, Agrippa, attended by Bernice, who, though a sister, 
was suspected of bearing to him a relation which no sister 
could lawfully hold, came down to Caesarea to pay their court 
to Porcius Festus, the newly appointed governor of the pro- 
vince. Having heard the particulars of PauPs case, and pro- 
bably a good report as to his eloquence, the Jewish King, who, 
notwithstanding his Herodean blood, and his sinful life, seems to 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT^ 183 

have had some natural conscience left, expressed a desire to hear 
Paul speak. Accordingly we are told that, ^' on the morrow, 
^lien Agrippa was come and Bernice, with great pomp, and 
was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains 
and the principal men of the city," evidently making a large 
and imposing assembly, *' at Festus's commandment Paul was 
brought forth." "And Pestus" — apparently feeling now that 
he had a prisoner worth showing, and whose showing contri- 
buted something to his own self-importance — '' said. King 
Agrippa, and all men who are here present with us, ye see this 
man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with 
me, both at Jerusalem and also here, crying that he ought not 
to live any longer. But when I found that he had committed 
nothing worthy of death, and that he himself hath appealed 
unto Augustus, I have determined to send him. Of whom I 
have no certain thing to write unto my lord. Wherefore I have 
brought him forth before you, and especially before thee, 
King Agrippa, that after examination had, I might have some- 
what to write. For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a 
prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him." 
" Then Agrippa said unto Paul, ' thou art permitted to speak 
for thyself.' And Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered 
for himself :" — ** I think myself happy. King Agrippa, because 
I shall answer for myself this day before thee, touching all the 
things whereof I am accused of the Jews. Especially, because 
I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are 
among the Jews. Wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. 
My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first 
among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews : who 
knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after 
the straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. And now 



184 THE ELOQUENT OKATORS 

I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise, made of 
God unto our fathers. Unto which promise our twelve tribes 
instantly serving God, day and night, hope to come : for 
which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the 
Jews.'' 

Such is his opening of the case ; such his exordium and 
clearing of the question. But you are doubtless familiar with 
the speech, and we need not recite it further now. You 
remember with what impressive grace and courtesy and 
ease, he addressed himself to the august auditory. You 
remember with what self-possessed dignity, with what fearless 
fidelity, with what conscious superiority over his lordly judges, 
despite their interruptions, he waxed warmer and warmer under 
the kindlings of his lofty theme, until they not only held him 
guiltless of any crime, but almost envied his position as a Chris- 
tian. You remember with what earnestness, and with what 
irresistible logic, he made the appeal direct, and pressed home 
the *' argumentum ad hominem," to the very conscience of the 
king — *' For the king knoweth of these things, before whom 
also I speak freely. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets ? 
I know that thou believest. Why should it be thought a thing 
incredible with you that Gpd should raise the dead." And 
when at last, these appeals had drawn from the king, the unex- 
pected declaration — '^ Almost thou persuadest me to be a Chris- 
tian, '^ the apostle, seizing so good an opportunity to deepen the 
impressions he had made, instantly replied — '*I would to God 
that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were not 
only almost, but altogether, such as I am, except these bonds.'' 
** This," says Dr. Kitto, '' was a master-stroke of true elo- 
quence, that the finest orators of Greece or Eome never 
equalled. The effect was electrical. Agrippa started from his 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 185 

Beat, and broke up the court, by departing with the governor 
and Bernice, as if afraid that he should commit himself further 
were he to listen any longer/' 



X. PAULAS ADDRESS ON MARS HILL. 

But if we should single out any one of the six recorded speeches 
of the apostle, as being the sublimest triumph of his eloquence, 
we should take his address at Athens, before the Court of 
Areopagus on Mars Hill, although the report given of it is 
evidently but a brief compend of what he said on that occasion. 
Briefs and skeletons of sermons are proverbially dry. But it is 
not so with those of the Scriptures. There is a vital spirit still 
breathing in every word and sentence of these inspired frag- 
ments. The one now before us possesses a peculiar interest, 
from the fact that it was the first meeting, at least on any- 
thing like a grand scale, of the eloquence of Jerusalem with 
that of Athens. It was the first formal and direct assault, 
which this new and foreign religion, called Christianity, had as 
yet made upon the fables of the ancient classical mythology in 
the home of their nativity and the citadel of their strength. 
Many triumphs it had won in Ephesus and other cities of Asia 
Minor. Something too had been achieved in the chief cities of 
Macedonia. But this was now the first promulgation of the 
truth to the Greeks themselves on their own classic soil. It 
was the first direct collision between the educated, imaginative 
mind of the Asiatic world, and the educated mind of the highly 
polished, artistic people of the European world. It was Shem 
and Japheth coming together after long centuries of separation, 
each bringing the religious system he had been perfecting for 



186 THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 

ages, at last to try their strength, on the arena of reason and 
argument, in an open contest for the mastery of the world. 
Versed as Paul was, from his singular advantages of genealogy, 
nativity and education, both in the learning of the East and 
ike West, and able, even before his endowment with the gift of 
tongues, to speak to the Hebrews in Hebrew, and to the Greeks 
in Greek, he was eminently fitted to represent the cause of 
Christianity at this Athenian meeting of the two worlds, the 
two races, and the two religions. We can well imagine 
with what enthusiasm, and with what yearning desire to save 
souls, such a man as Paul must have trod, for the first time, 
the classic soil of Attica — the far-famed land of poetry and the 
arts, of heroes and sages, of temple-crowned hills and story- 
telling glens, of gushing fountains, bright skies, and balmy air : 
and how he would feel when at last he stood within the gates 
of that proud city, w^hich was the boast of Greece, the shrine 
of genius, the home of art, the cradle of philosophy, but at the 
same time the seat of every false god. And so, we are told, 
that while tarrying at Athens for his companions, ^* his spirit 
was stirred within him " when he saw such a city wholly given 
to idolatrv. 

Disputing first with his own countrymen there in the syna- 
gogue, as was his custom wherever he went, and then with all 
others whom he met, from day to day, in the market-place, he 
was, after a while, encountered by a company of the Epicurean 
and Stoic philosophers, who brought him to the great council 
hall of the city on the top of Mars Hill, in order to hear more 
fully what this babbler and setter forth of strange gods had to 
say. In that place the Athenians — professional teachers, poets, 
rhetoricians, critics, philosophers, logicians — were accustomed 
to meet daily for the purpose of " telling or hearing some new 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 187 

thing." In that place also the highest court of the city was 
accustomed to hold its sessions. In that very hall the great 
Socrates, four centuries before, had been arraigned, tried and 
condemned to death, on this same charge of inculcating the 
worship of strange gods. 

It is obvious from the narrative and from the apostle^s speech 
that he had been brought into the presence of this court, not 
merely out of idle curiosity to hear him speak, but for the pur- 
pose of an investigation, and if need be a trial, touching the 
doctrines he had been inculcating during his stay at Athens. 
And if so, it is equally obvious, that he was in no little peril of 
his life, in case he should appear to have been setting forth the 
worship of some new, unauthorized God. For, as Dr. Kitto 
again tells us, you must bear in mind, that whilst the Athenians 
were willing and even anxious to establish the worship of every 
distinguished deity in the world, it was a matter which belonged 
solelv to the state. It was death for an individual unauthorized 
to establish or teach any new worship. How then did Paul, 
who had been boldly preaching Jesus and the Resurrection, 
manage to exonerate himself from this dangerous charge ? In 
the most admirable manner in the world. By a single sentence 
in the very opening of his speech, which must have relieved 
every mind in his audience, and elicited new interest in his 
cause, he extricated himself from all suspicions on that point. 
Taking advantage of his recent observations in their city, and 
with a skill and ingenuity, that would have done credit to any 
orator in the world, abstaining from any allusion to their laws 
or his implied violation of them, he virtually told them, that it 
was his mission to declare to them, that Deity, the creator of 
heaven and earth, whom they had been ignorantly worshipping, 
and whom the state had already recognized by that public altar 



188 THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 

which it had erected, with ao inscription — '* To the unknown 
God." 

*^ Having thus skillfully opened his case/' says the learned 
author just referred to, " Paul proceeded with his statement ; 
and it is very safe to say, that in all the choicest oratory of the 
heathen world, there is nothing to compare with the splendor, 
majesty and dignity with which he entered upon his explana- 
tion ; and the felicity is no less admirable than the boldness 
with which he refers to the scene by which he was surrounded. 
The court of the Areopagus w^as uncovered, and above him 
was only the canopy of heaven. Around him was plain and 
mountain, and in the distance was the expanse of ocean. Im- 
mediately before him was the Acropolis, with the glorious 
Parthenon, and the colossal statue of Minerva, and a thousand 
other images, many of them glittering with silver. How im- 
pressively then, but with w^hat peril, must he have uttered these 
w^ords — ' God that made the world, and all things therein, see- 
ing: that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in 
temples made with hands ; neither is worshipped with men's 
hands.' " 

Now, if ever the three elements of a great occasion, a great 
subject and a great man conspired together to give the eloquent 
Athenians a specimen of a great speech, it was the case when 
this lone but fearless ambassador of the true God, knowing as 
he did the absolute certainty of all that he preached, stood up 
in that venerable hall which erst had rung with the clarion 
voice of Demosthenes, to proclaim the sublime truths of Chris- 
tianity to these w^orshippers of the unknown God. Imagine if 
you can the moral glory of such an occasion, such a theme and 
such a preacher. He stands in an open court, on an elevated 
point of the city, where there is everything around him, in earth 



DF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 189 

and sky, on land and sea, in nature and art to strike the out- 
ward sense, and fill the soul with emotions of awe and grandeur. 
He stands in the midst of living men who claim to be the elite 
of the earth, of monuments dedicated to the mighty dead of all 
past generations, of temples aud oracles sacred to the presiding 
deities of every nation. And stands alone, sole representative 
of a religion, which he knows by revelation from heaven shall 
one day dethrone every deity, shut up every temple and silence 
every oracle in Athens and in Greece. And his task is so to 
preach that religion now, as not to arouse the prejudices or 
excite the wrath of these bigoted and boastful philosophers. 

Most nobly and successfully does he perform the arduous 
task. In the language of Gilfillan : *' He rises to the majesty 
of the scene. He fills easily and amply the great sphere which 
he finds around him. He feels the dignity of his position. He 
knows he has a message from the God who made that ocean, 
these mountains and these heavens. The men of Athens are 
clamoring for some new thing ; he has the latest news from the 
throne of God. They are worshipping the ' unknown God ;' it 
is his task to unveil his image and show him shining in the face 
of Jesus Christ. In nine immortal sentences he condenses all 
the primal truths of nature and of Christianity." 

But as the speech is short and at all times worthy of our 
profoundest study, let us now quote it entire : 

** Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too 
superstitious (or rather ye are overmuch devout). For as I 
passed and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this 
inscription, ' To the unknown God.' Whom therefore ye igno- 
rantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the 
world, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven 
and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with -hands ; neither 



190 THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 

is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, 
seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things. And 
hath made of one blood, all nations of men, for to dwell on all 
the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before 
appointed, and the bounds of their habitation : that they should 
seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, 
though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live 
and move and have our being ; as certain also of your own 
poets have said — ' For we are also his offspring.' For as much 
then, as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think 
that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven 
by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God 
winked at ; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. 
Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge 
the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordain- 
ed ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he 
hath raised him from the dead." 

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead — a doc- 
trine deeply repugnant to the Greeks, though they held the 
immortality of the soul — '^ Some mocked, but others said we 
will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from 
among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him and believed ; 
among whom was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman 
named Damaris, and others with them." His labor had not 
been in vain. These persons, no doubt, became the nucleus 
of a church at Athens — the first fruits of Attica to the 
Lord. 

Now what, think you, would have been the judgment of man- 
kind, if, instead of a mere synopsis like this, one of Paul's dis- 
courses as long as those of Demosthenes and Cicero, had come 
down to us ? Suppose we had one of his speeches as complete 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 191 

as the longest of his epistles. He had too much to do to write 
his sermons ; and there was no one to report them in full. But 
suppose we could now read all he said on Mars Hill, or all that 
speech which made Felix tremble, or that which almost per- 
suaded Agrippa, or that which he delivered at Jerusalem in 
Hebrew, what would be our judgment of his eloquence, arguing 
from the less to the greater ? After reading Demosthenes 
through an hour's oration, we do not wonder that the Athe- 
nians rent the air with the cry — '^ Let us rise and march against 
Philip." But suppose the world had to measure the calibre of 
the Grecian or the Roman orator by fragments of their 
speeches, no longer than those of Paul on Mars Hill. Might 
not the world greatly modify its opinions as to their compara- 
tive merits ? 

But it may be objected to all this, that Paul speaks dispara- 
gingly of his own eloquence. We do not wonder that he, who 
had seen the glory of Jesus, who had been ^' caught up into 
paradise, where he heard unspeakable words, which it is not 
lawful for a man to utter,'' and who in view of the Divine holi- 
ness was accustomed to deprecate all excellency of speech or 
wisdom of words, as used by the men of this world, and to 
speak of himself as the chief of sinners — should also speak of 
of his ^' bodily presence as weak and his speech is contemptible." 
But whatever he thought of himself, it is clear that none of his 
hearers, not even the enemies who said so, ever thought his 
speech contemptible or his bodily presence weak. Though his 
name was Paul, the little, he had a mouth and wisdom which 
none of his enemies could gainsay or resist — an eloquence of 
utterance and a soul of energy which never failed him. The 
true gauge of the power of words lies in what words can 
accomplish. Words not backed by deeds never were, and never 



192 THE ELOQUENT OEATOKS 

can be eloquent. Eloquence is great only wtien it can do great 
things, or what is the same, make others do them. 

Now it is manifest, that in the whole Jewish, Grecian and 
Eoman world, there was no power, intellectual or moral, which 
could stand up against Paul ; none, in fact, that ever did with- 
stand him but the power of mere brute force. Physically, of 
course, the Eoman Empire was stronger than Paul and his fel- 
low apostles ; but in every other sense, they were more than a 
match for the world, as the result proved. And as the chief 
instrumentality which they used in accomplishing their great 
work, was public speakii^ — the preaching of the truth ; so, we 
must pronounce the public speaking, which had such power to 
move the world, eloquence of the highest order ; and none the 
less so, but indeed all the more so, because it was wielded by a 
Divine power. 

There are several incidents recorded of Paul's public speak- 
ing which evince his consummate ability and address as an 
orator. For instance, you remember how, at Lystra, the priest 
of Mercury was about to offer sacrifice to him as the chief 
speaker, under the impression that the god of eloquence had 
come down. That such a man as Felix should be made to 
tremble on his seat of power, when he reasoned of righteousness, 
temperance and judgment to come, is another proof of it. And 
that such a man as Agrippa should be made to confess himself 
almost persuaded to be a Christian before all the court of Festus, 
is still another. See, too, with what promptness and graceful 
majesty, he replied to the rude interruption of the governor. 
" I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words 
of truth and soberness." You may remember also how at one 
time he carried his cause triumphantly over the Sanhedrim by 
taking advantage of their own dissensions, and rebuked the 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 193 

high priest in his very chair of office, with the bold and terrible 
retort — *' God shall smite thee, thou whited wall : for sittest 
thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be 
smitten contrary to law ?" You may remember how at last hav- 
ing won for himself the reputation of " turning the world upside 
down," which in fact he had done, though not, like the mighty 
men of this world, with the thunders of any human artillery, or 
the lightning of any physical sword, he took an appeal from all 
the petty tribunals, both of Jew and Gentile, and carried up his 
great cause, the cause of Christianity against the world, to the 
highest tribunal on earth, the judgment bar of Caesar, where he 
tells us, '' no man stood with him." No man, learned in the 
law of nations, ever baffled his adversaries and covered them 
with confusion more effectually than Paul did by this appeal. 
And never did an orator have a nobler cause to plead, or occupy 
a position of higher moral grandeur, than Paul held, when thus 
appealing, he stood before Nero. What would we not give to 
have that speech ? 

We have all, perhaps, admired the lofty bearing with which, 
in different lands and in different ages, the preachers of the 
gospel, as if animated by one spirit, have stood up for the defence 
of truth and right in the presence of the kings and nobles and 
mighty men of the earth. There is nothing in the history of 
man more glorious than this. There are no deeds that men 
have ever done, which have more successfully vindicated the 
dignity of human nature, and made man worthy of the attention 
of angels, than these brave deeds of the unarmed preachers of 
the truth as it is in Jesus. We have read how the corrupt 
court of France was often made to tremble under the daring 
appeals and applications of Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and Massillon. 
We have read how the trumpet tongue of John Knox, unawed 

9 



191 THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 

by royalty and beauty even in tears, failed not to charge home 
the sins and follies of the Queen of Scots. We have read how 
George II. of England was awed into silence and admiration, 
when rebuked for his levity, by Samuel Davies of Virginia, 
saying to him — *' When Jehovah speaks, let the Kings of the 
earth keep silence." We have read how Wickliffe and Luther, 
Wishart and Eogers, Bunyan and Baxter, and a cloud of such 
witnesses for the truth, stood up boldly against the strongholds 
of prevailing vice and fashion, and were not afraid to beard the 
lion in his den, when duty required it. 

But whence this daring fidelity to the cause of truth ? 
Whence this heroic devotion to principles for which no Grecian 
or Roman orator ever died ? In what school did the preachers 
of righteousnes learn this brave style of eloquence ? Why 
have they been so sublime ? The answer is obvious. It lies in 
the fact, that they have taken Paul and his fellow apostles as 
their models, and they have only followed in the footsteps of 
these inspired orators, even as they followed in the footsteps of 
Christ. 

XI. DISCOURSES OF OUR LORD. 

But if such be the eloquence of his ministers and servants, 
what shall we say of the Master himself ? If such distinction 
belong to the merely human orators of the Bible, as compared 
with those of other nations, how shall we speak of the Divine 
preeminence of that eloquent voice, which once shook the earth, 
and shall yet once more shake both earth and heaven ! If any 
thing more were wanting to complete our picture, to place the 
seal of triumph and glory upon these inspired orators, and to 
exalt the eloquence of the pulpit above every other kind of elo- 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 195 

quence, it is found in the fact that Christ the son of God was 
a public speaker and a preacher of the gospel. 

It would seem at first view hardly lawful to call him an ora- 
tor : and jet, in the highest sense of the term, he was as truly 
a human and Divine orator, as he was both God and man. He 
spoke in public and in private. His converse was with God 
and with man. His great mediatorial office of prophet niade 
him a public teacher to the world. As an ambassador sent from 
Heaven, he had a great mission to establish and proclaim by 
mighty works and mighty words. His ministry of three years 
was a period of almost daily public speaking. '' To you, men, 
I call, and my voice is to the sons of men." Speech, public, 
private, unceasing, human speech was one of the grand instru- 
ments of his power on the world, one of the essential departments 
of the work he came to do. 

What must have been the soft, beseeching music of that voice, 
of which it is written, that they '* wondered at the gracious 
words which proceeded out of his mouth :'' *' The common peo- 
ple heard him gladly :" '' He spake as one having authority, and 
not as the scribes f " Never man spake as this man V^ What 
must have been the eloquent Divine power of that voice of wis- 
dom, love and authority, which sometimes put every adversary 
to silence, and sounded the very depths of the' human heart, so 
as to reveal all it had ever felt or done — that voice, which from 
the mountain's brow, beneath the tranquil skies, in view of 
the bright glad waters of the sea of Galilee, breathed forth its 
words of blessing and salvation to the lost sheep of the house 
of Israel — that voice whose every accent was in such deep sym- 
pathy with human want and woe, that it could speak peace 
to the troubled soul, joy to the desolate, light for the straying, 
pardon for the guilty, health for the sick, hope for the despairing, 



196 THE ELOQUENT ORATORS 

life for the dying — that voice which had such absolute com- 
mand over all the elements of nature, that it could say to the 
raging winds and waters — '* Peace, be still ;" and there was a 
calm ; or to the dull cold ear of death — " Damsel, arise," ''Lazarus, 
come forth ;" and it was obeyed — that voice, whose possessor 
was in such sublime communion and harmony with the heavenly 
world, that thrice did he draw down a response and testimony 
from God, as if it had been a voice of thunder or of an angel. 

Talk we of the eloquence of human tongues ? Here is a voice 
of Divine eloquence, clothing itself in the language of men, but 
fresh from Heaven, which the living and the dying of every 
generation have listened to, as they have to no other voice. 
'Tis the voice of Jesus, the man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief, but God over all and blessed forever. In his very name 
there is a music and a charm which no other name of men 
or angels can inspire. In his voice there is an eloquence and a 
power which can awake the dead — which all that are in their 
graves shall hear, and when they hear it, shall spring to life 
again. 'Tis the voice of him who made the world, who " spake 
and it was done ; who commanded, and it stood fast.'' The 
first voice to which these heavens and earth reverberated at the 
beginning, saying, *' Let there be light," is the same voice that 
is appointed to wake the dead and close the scenes of time. So 
that the Bible opens and closes, like the course of time, with 
the voice of God. Jesus, the great teacher, prophet, priest and 
king of our salvation, is the first and last to speak on the grand 
theatre of this material creation — the Alpha and Omega, alike 
of all human eloquence and all created existence. How pro- 
found — ^how sublime — how solemn his words : " Marvel not at 
this ; the hour cometh, in which all that are in their graves shall 
hear his voice, and they that hear shall live." 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 197 

We need not dwell upon the peculiar characteristics of our 
Saviour's public and private discourses. They must be familiar 
to all. But his discourses stand alone, and unapproachable in 
the history of Hterature and of eloquence. No other teacher, not 
even his inspired Apostles, ever spoke as he did. You will call 
to mind at once his remarkable parables, of which about thirty 
are recorded at length, and which, for originality, beauty, and 
power of truth, have no parallel in human language. They 
have been the study and the admiration of the world for eight- 
teen centuries. You will think also of his wonderful sermon on 
the Mount, which at one view embraces all the great essential 
principles of morality and virtue, as well as all the primary 
precepts of the gospel. You will remember too all those fear 
ful denunciations of woe and impending judgment which he 
seems to have uttered against the Pharisees and wicked rulers 
of Jerusalem, as if every sentence had drawn from him a tear- 
You will readily call to mind the many occasions on which he, 
by a few heart-searching words, stripped off all the disguises 
of his foes and put to silence and confusion those who had laid 
snares to destroy him, by reporting what he said. And you will 
not forget those long, affectionate, parting discourses, reported 
by John, w^hich he delivered to his disciples on the night before 
his death. If there is pathos— if there is earnestness — if there 
is sublime truth — if there is the soul of eloquence, to be found 
in w^ords, you have all in these farewell words, these sacred 
*' memorabilia '^ of Jesus. 

Socrates was a great and wise man for his generation. For 
a Greek and a heathen, he had made great attainments in prac- 
tical wisdom. But, living or dying, he uttered no such senti- 
ments of sublimity and truth, as these last sayings of Jesus. 
There is no such Divine consolation, no such voice of eloquence 



198 THE ELOQUENT ORATOKS 

to sustain and cheer the soul in its passage through the dark 
valley and shadow of death. One sentence from the lips of 
Jesus has more to comfort and inspire, than all the Socratic 
philosophy of the ' 'Memorabilia/' It may be doubted, after all, 
whether in all points, Socrates lived or died, as he had taught, 
like a philosopher : but the world has never questioned that 
Jesus Christ lived, and taught, and died, as never man did — as 
none but God could do. 



XII. — CONCLUSION. 

But finally ; from the survey now taken of the eloquent 
oratory of the Bible, both in the Old Testament and the New, 
the conclusion seems fair and legitimate, that this book is 
entitled to hold the first rank in the annals of human eloquence ; 
that it contains models of thought and expression in almost 
every department of speech, possessing the highest attractions 
of taste and genius, as well as of inspiration — models equal, if 
not superior, to any that mortal ears have ever listened to, or 
human hearts ever felt. 

Now this is no small claim which we are making for the Book of 
God, when we ascribe to it the highest attractions of eloquence. 
For there is nothing in all the walks of genius that men more 
admire than real eloquence : and it is impossible to over-esti- 
mate the influence which eloquence has wielded over the des- 
tinies of men and nations. The gift of speech is one of the 
greatest and best of God's gifts to man. The tongue of elo- 
quence is one of the sublimest and most efl*ective of all the 
endowments of genius. 

There is no music this side of the music of the spheres and 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 199 

the songs of angels, so sweet and entrancing as the music of 
the human voice. There is no creature that God hath placed 
on earth so eloquent, so musical, as man ; and there is no elo- 
quence or music which man can make, so sublime and godlike, 
as that which he makes with his voice. Man hath sought out 
many inventions to extend his dominion and supplement his 
power ; but there is no instrument yet invented so attractive, 
so sublime, so sweet as his voice. What is the inarticulate 
roar of the cannon, or burst of the bomb-shell, or beat of the 
drum, or blast of the bugle, or whistle of the steam car, or 
pealing note of the organ, compared with the thought-laden 
thunder and meaning-melody of the human voice ? What is 
the rude roar of the monarch of the forest, or the wild scream 
of the eagle, or the loud neighing of the steed, or the sweetest 
music of the nightingale, compared with the male or female 
voice of our species ? Nay further ; what is even the deep- 
toned anthem of the sea, and the earthquake, the cataract, the 
volcano and the storm ? It is louder and stronger ; but is it 
more eloquent and sublime, than the articulate, intelligent voice 
of man ? Says the apostle, ** there are, it may be, so many 
kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signi- 
fication.'^ But there is no voice on earth so significant as 
man's. There are voices of music, eloquence, poesy — voices of 
high and holy significance to the ear of reason and religion — 
in all the realms of nature ; but it is only when the human 
voice hath taken them up and given to them a tongue in human 
speech, that these inarticulate voices of nature become intelligi 
ble, eloquent and sublime. 

But these, you may say, are the voices of God. In the very 
same sense is the voice of man the voice of God ; for he is its 
author. The great intellect — the great orator, with all the 



200 THE ELOQUENT ORATOKS 

music of his eloquent tongue, is not less the workmanship of 
God, than is the great mountain or the great sea. A distin- 
guished statesman and orator of our times. Lord Brougham, 
has remarked that a great mind, on some important occasion 
and some lofty theme, giving utterance to itself in eloquent 
speech, is the sublimest spectacle which the world now affords. 
Who has not felt the force of that remark ? If we include, as 
we ought, in the term eloquence, man's address to God in 
prayer as well as his address to his fellow-men, it is clear, that 
eloquent speech is the sublimest act which he can perform, 
since the age of miracles. In accordance with this idea, we 
find the inspired Psalmist repeatedly speaking of his tongue or 
voice as the glory of his physical frame: *^ Wake up my 
glory," ^^ I will sing and praise thee with my glory." If it 
were possible, who now would not give more to hear PauPs 
speech on Mars Hill, or before the bar of Nero, than to see the 
Parthenon at Athens, or the Coliseum and Pantheon at Eome 
in all their glory ? Who that has a soul within him, would not 
go farther to hear Chalmers or Eobert Hall preach, than to 
see London or Edinburgh, Ben Nevis or Loch Lomond ? The 
grandest monument of human art now on earth, is probably St. 
Peter^s at Eome ; but who would not pay more for one hear- 
ing of Sheridan-s speech on the trial of Warren Hastings, 
than for one vision even of all the glory of St. Peters ? The 
cataract of Niagara is considered the sublimest single spectacle 
in all the realms of nature ; but where is the man, who, if he 
had the option of gazing for an hour on that ^'glorious robe 
of beauty and of power,'' or of hearing Patrick Henry, or 
Henry Clay speak an hour, would not say, let me hear the 
great man eloquent? Yes, we hold this double truth — that 
man himself, is, after all, the sublimest of all God's works on 



OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 201 

earth, and that eloquence is the sublimest of all the acts of 
man, provided only he be a true man. 

Hence we are not surprised at the prominence which public 
speaking holds in the Bible, and in the whole economy of God's 
grace to the world. We do not wonder that God hath ordained 
by public speech — the preaching of the cross — to accomplish 
the greatest work that is ever to be done on earth. In the 
conversion of a sinner to God, through the preaching of the 
truth — in the conversion of a world to God, by the agency of 
living, speaking men, the gospel has given to human eloquence 
at once its noblest mission, and its grandest development. 

By all that admiration, then, which we feel for genius and 
eloquence when employed in the accomplishment of the greatest 
and noblest ends, we are attracted to the Bible as the book of 
books. And in all that superiority, which, from the sublimity 
and importance of their themes, its orators have attained over 
others, we have an argument that the book is from God. For 
that its comparatively unfavored orators, in what has been 
called a rude, unlettered age, and of an unartistic race, should 
have reached this perfection of beauty and sublimity, and 
should still hold an acknowledged mastery over all civilized 
nations, are facts which admit of but one solution — which is, 
that God himself is the great speaker, and all its other speak- 
ers have been his mouth-piece, his authorized oracles and am- 
bassadors. 



9* 



202 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTEB 



CHAPTER V. 

TYPES OF FEMALE CHAEACTER IN THE BIBLE. 

Interest of the Subject — Greneral View — Classification — Picture of Eve — Sarah and 
Rebekah — Character of Deborah — Character of Esther and Ruth — Jezebel and Atha- 
liah — Herodias and her dancing Daughter — Abigail, Hannah, and Martha — The Ma- 
rys — Concluding Remarks. 

I. INTEREST OF THE SUBJECT. 

In illustration of our main proposition in these pages — the 
classical attractiveness of the Bible — it is important to present, 
at least, a specimen of its historical or biographical characters. 
In nothing perhaps does its superiority over all other books 
appear more manifest, than in its brief, graphic, inimitable del- 
ineations of human character. From first to last, it opens to 
our view, besides its poets and orators, a magnificent succession 
of living characters — kings and statesmen, heroes and sages, 
patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, young men and maidens, 
old men and children. In a field so vast, where volumes might 
be filled, we can only select a few prominent groups, by way of 
example. For this purpose, let us take first the Women of the 
Bible, or, as they may be called in modern phrase, ** the Ladies 
of the olden time." In order to win from the youth of both 
sexes a deep and abiding interest in our task at the outset, we 
would here seek to present, on the foreground of the picture, 
the loveliest group of all. We would call them to the contem- 



IN THE BIBLE. » 203 

plation of a woman in her most ancient record. We would 
invite them to look first upon that character, which, in an 
ascending scale, was the last to appear amid the scenes of crea- 
tion, and which, by being last, seemed to bear the aspect of the 
most finished production of creative wisdom, and the nearest 
approximation to Divine perfection, of all that was made. 
Woman's earliest, noblest record is the Bible ; and upon this 
fact we would now fix your attention as one of the chief attrac- 
tions of the book. 

You are, doubtless, familiar with the record of her virtues, 
her sufferings, and her achievements, in other books and on 
other fields of fame. You have all, perhaps, read the story of 
the heroic women of the American Eevolution, or that of the 
memorable women of Scotland's covenant ; you have heard the 
fame of many a noble lady in many a royal court during the 
age of chivalry and romance ; you have admired the renowned 
matrons of Grecian and Eoman history ; and you have marked, 
with a peculiar pleasure, the luminous pathway of woman in all 
those fields of literature, of beneficence, and of Christian mis- 
sions, which have been opened to her by our modern civilization. 
But it is not of any of these that we are now to speak. Our 
present purpose is to ascend the stream of female biography to 
its fountain-head ; to read a record of higher antiquity and 
nobler heraldry than any of these could boast ; in short ,to carry 
you back, and, if you have not already formed the acquaintance, 
to introduce you to the beautiful, the heroic, the artless, the 
pure-minded, the queen-like, the oft-inspired women of the 
Scriptures. 

In the portraiture of female character which is presented in 
the Bible, we behold a galaxy of moral and spiritual beauty, 
excelling all the ancient world, and still shinmg out from the 



20i TYPES OF FEMA.LE CHAEACTER 

darkness of ages in all its original, undimmed radiance. We 
gaze upon it with admiration, as we do upon the star-gemmed 
firmament of the night, which has lost nothing through the 
lapse of time, but is as fresh and lovely now as when the even- 
ing and morning closed the first week of creation. In the 
women of the Bible we see something of that native beauty 
which is unindebted to the tricks of art, and which, when 
'^ unadorned is adorned the most." In these ladies of the olden 
time, these honored women of the earth's first golden age, we 
have those primeval types of womanly beauty and glory, which, 
like originals from the great masters of painting and sculpture, 
have stood for the study and admiration of the world. More 
heroic than the mothers of our revolutionary struggle, more 
saintly than the high-souled daughters of Scotland's covenant, 
more queenly than the queens of any royal court, more renowned 
than all the ladies fair for whom the wars of chivalry were 
waged, more majestic and sublime in virtue than Lucretia or any 
matron of Grecian and Roman story, more beautiful and glori- 
ous than Rebekah the Jewess in Ivanhoe or any other creation 
of romance, the women of the Bible, in all that constitutes the 
peculiar glory of their sex, have stood through ages as the 
brightest exemplars to mankind. Embosomed on the pages of 
sacred history, like stars upon the diadem of night, these daugh- 
ters and sisters of the patriarchs, these wives and mothers of the 
sons of God, have been shining there, as by heaven's appoint- 
ment they were intended to shine, for the guidance of the 
women of every generation to the end of time. What they 
have been thus far, they are still — the most perfect models 
by which to form the manners and the moral character of 
woman. 

To the contemplation of these models, your attention is now 



IN THE BIBLE. 205 

invited. Amid the hurry and bustle of this age of excitement, 
and empty show, and heartless fashion, it may do us good to go 
back occasionally to the simplicity of nature. We live in an 
age of wonders. On all hands we hear the cry of new inven- 
tions, the boast of improvement, the march of mind, the din of 
many running to and fro, and knowledge increasing. Almost 
everybody smatters of science, and almost everything hisses 
with steam. Everything is in motion, and everybody seems 
to be striving to verify the couplet — 

** Tramp, tramp along the land we go, 
Splash, splash across the sei.'' 

At such a time it may be as delightful as it is profitable, to 
escape from these scenes of noise and confusion, and take re- 
fuge, at least for an hour, in that old world of tranquillity and 
peace, where, beneath genial skies, and amid rural scenes, the 
mothers, wives, and daughters of patriarchs and kings, prophets 
and apostles, dwelt so long to make home happy, and prepare for 
heaven. Such a retrospect of the past, and such a contempla- 
tion of the biography of the highly-favored women of the Bible, 
may well be considered appropriate here, if we shall succeed 
at all in commending these pages to the parents and teachers, 
above all, to the mothers and daughters, of our times. The 
theme is one which is strictly and emphatically educational, and 
one, too, which ought to prove instructive to the young, attrac- 
tive to all. 

II. GENERAL VIEW. 

The number of women mentioned in the Bible by name is 
about eighty, besides some twenty others, whose names are not 
given, but who are individually described by their social rela- 



206 TYPE3 OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

tions ; such as PharaoVs daughter, Lot^s wife, Peter^s wife's 
mother, the widow of Nain, the woman of Samaria, the witch 
of Eudor, the queen of Sheba, and the elect lady of John^s se- 
cond epistle. We have, therefore, about one hundred in all, 
whose names or characters, singled out from the general mass, 
have acquired a distinct personality, and have been rendered 
immortal on the pages of the sacred volume. Their history, 
left on record by the infallible pen of inspiration, runs through a 
period of four thousand years ; from Eve, the first wife and 
mother of our race, down to that excellent lady to whom the 
beloved disciple, inditing his second epistle, says : *^ I rejoiced 
greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth." Their 
biography is written with every varying degree of fullness, from 
a single significant name, like that of Josiah's mother, Jedidah^ 
" the amiable, the well-beloved," or that of Job^s daughter, 
Jemima, " handsome as the day," up to a description so com- 
plete that it gives name to a whole book, as in the case of Euth 
and Esther. Their lives, characters, and fortunes, as delineated 
between these extremes, are beautifully diversified with all that 
goes to make up the real world — all the lights and shadows of 
human existence. 

There is no scene of prosperity or adversity, no condition of 
youth or old age, no degree of joy or sorrow, hope or despair, 
through which some of these women of the Bible have not passed. 
There is no relationship of life, private or public, domestic, 
social, or civil, in which woman ever stood or can stand, that 
they have not held ; whilst some of them occupied peculiar 
and wonderful positions which no woman will ever fill again on 
earth. In all the diversified ranks of human society, in all the 
changing circumstances of wealth and poverty, of grandeur and 
lowliness, they have stood, from Bathsheba, on the right hand 



IN THE BIBLE. 207 

of Solomon's throne, and Esther, queen of a hundred and twenty- 
seven provinces, down to the poor widow casting her two mites 
into the treasury, or Lydia selling her purple, or Dorcas work- 
ing at her garment, or Magdalene weeping at Jesus's feet. 

Whether we contemplate the women of the Old Testament or 
the New; whether we follow the mother of Moses, secretly launch- 
ing the frail bark of her babe upon the waters of the Nile, or the 
mother of Jesus, in the gaze of the multitude, beholding her son 
and Lord expire on the cross ; whether we look upon Miriam as 
she stands up exultingly with all the band of IsraeFs daughters on 
the Red Sea's shore, or see Deborah, the heroic, heaven-inspired 
prophetess, at the head of the armies of Israel, going forth to 
battle against the enemies of her country, and returning with songs 
of victory ; whether we view Jephthah's daughter laying down 
her young and lovely life as a willing sacrifice on the altar of 
filial duty and patriotism, or behold the women of Galilee and the 
daughters of Jerusalem, the Marys and the Marthas, as in their 
silent, unutterable sorrow, they watch the hill of death, and lin- 
ger around the tomb, and win for their sex the imperishable glory 
of being " earliest at the sepulchre and latest at the cross " — we 
must acknowledge that there is no sphere of honor and trust, no 
post of danger, trial and responsibility, which woman ever filled on 
earth, higher than those which the women of the Bible have filled. 

And further still, in their moral character we behold as great 
a diversity as in their social condition and their external for- 
tunes. Every virtue, every grace, every glorious moral attri- 
bute that can adorn and ennoble the female heart, is illustrated 
in the lives of some of them ; whilst all the depths of dark de- 
pravity, to which woman ever stooped on earth, are revealed 
in others. The good and lovely, however, greatly outnumber 
the bad. But the female biography of the whole world does 



208 TYPES OF FEMALE CHAKACTER ^ 

not display more strikingly the extremes of good and evil in 
moral character, than they are displayed in the women of the 
Scriptures. Nowhere else, except in the actual world around 
us, can we find such a field for the study of character, such a 
llfcTlike picture of the heart in all its workings. What a con- 
trast, for example, have we between vile, haggard vice, as re- 
presented in the witch of Endor, and calm, celestial virtue, as 
represented in Anna, the prophetess, ** waiting for the consola- 
tion of Israel !" Look at those heaven-daring monsters of 
cruelty, Athaliah and Jezebel, queens of Judah and Israel, as 
contrasted with the loving sisters, Mary and Martha of Bethany. 
Or, behold Naomi and Euth, in their humble piety and whole- 
hearted affection, as contrasted with Herodias and her daughter 
in their proud, vindictive, ferocious guilt ! 

Now this wide diversity of female character is so exhibited in 
the Bible, from first to last, as to make us admire and love the 
virtuous, whilst we abhor and loathe the vicious. And herein 
is displayed a wonderful peculiarity of all the Scripture biog- 
raphy, both male and female. 'Tis a peculiarity which reveals 
the skill of a master mind, and the delicate touches of an im- 
maculate hand. 'Tis that conscientious, consistent, ever-watch- 
ful, inflexible regard for truth and virtue, which makes us feel 
that these unparalleled portraits could have been drawn by no 
less than a hand Diviue. On this background of four thousand 
years, on this biographical canvas, stretching from the Creation 
to the Advent, embracing the widest possible variety of outline 
and detail, portraying an almost endless diversity of circum- 
stances and social condition, and comprehending a range of 
moral character from the extreme of spotless virtue to that of 
hideous vice, one hundred of the most notable and strongly 
marked women of antiquity, many of them of different nations 



IN THE BIBLE. 209 

and races, are so presented to our view as to produce invariably 
upon every mind, whether aged or young, refined or illiterate, 
inclined to virtue or prone to vice, the same grand moral im- 
pression of admiration for the virtuous and disgust for the 
vicious. On whatever groups of the picture you gaze, whether 
on its angels of innocence or its monsters of iniquity, or on all 
the shades of character that lie between, one invariable, salu- 
tary lesson, of admiration for the holy and abhorrence for the 
bad, remains fixed upon the heart forevermore. 

You must not expect to find the women of the Bible all an- 
gels. If they had been, they would not have been the best 
models for us. We needed the shadows, as well as the lights, to 
form a perfect picture. But the thing we most needed was the pen- 
cil of inspiration ; so to blend the lights with the shadows, as to 
produce the right moral effect, and thus to make the mothers, 
wives, and daughters of the earth's earliest history, the authorized 
models for moulding the moral character of woman in every age 
and every land to the end of time. Nor, again, must you expect 
to find even those women of the Bible, who may pass for an- 
gelic, altogether or at all times such. They are holy, and good, 
and lovely : but they are not sinless. They are still of the 
earth, belonging to human nature, though walking with God. 
And, in this respect, they differ from those ideal, dream-like 
creatures of our modern poetry and fiction, whose idolized 
perfection consists in its infinite unlikeness to anything real 
on earth. Indeed, it is as much by the faithfully recorded faults 
and foibles, infirmities and defects of these scriptural charac- 
ters, as by their bright, angelic virtues, that the spirit of inspira- 
tion intended the daughters of all subsequent ages to be taught. 
For just as the extremes of virtue and vice are represented 
on the great picture, in the character of different persons, so 



210 TYPES OF FEMALE CHAKACTEK 

also all the intermediate degrees of good and evil, in lighter or 
darker shades, are found mingling sometimes in the same person, 
and that person as Rahab, or Magdalene, at last a saint of God. 
Now, if the highlj-favored ladies of our times should be at 
all disposed to think disparagingly of the woman of the Bible, 
and to ask why she was not more perfect, more accomplished, 
more refined, let them bear in mind that the woman of the Bi- 
ble, was the pioneer of the world's civilization ; that she had 
but few examples, if any, to study ; that she had to go before 
as an original, and set the fashion for those who came after- 
wards ; that she had not, what all have now, an inspired vol- 
ume, containing one hundred Divinely drawn characters, to 
teach her what woman ought to be or ought not to be. It is 
by her experience, and through the lessons derived from her ex 
ample, that the female world is such as we find it now. She 
has thus become the riches of the world, and by her instrumen- 
tality as a predecessor, a pioneer and a model, woman has since 
attained tliat superiority of position, of influence, of mental 
and moral culture, which now distinguishes her in every civil- 
ized Christian land. Do not forget, then, that if the woman of 
the Bible had not been just what she was thousands of years 
ago, our much admired female friend, w^ho reads these pages, 
would be very far from being the accomplished lady she now is. 
The proof of the fact is seen in that contrast, which, for eighteen 
centuries, has existed between the intellectual, social, and mo- 
ral condition of woman in Christian lands, and her condition in 
countries where no Bible has been known. 



IN THE BIBLE. ' 211 



III. — CLASSIFICATION. 

This long gallery of strikingly diversified female portraits, of 
which, thus far, we have been taking only a distant panoramic 
view, may now be approached for a closer inspection, and will 
be fomid arranged under the four following distinct divisions or 
groups : 

The first class is composed of all those whose characters, so 
far as they have come down to us, are proverbial for wickedness 
or folly • whose talents and influence, while they lived, were 
wholly perverted to evil ; and whose fearful examples, held 
forth in the clear light of Scripture, still speak to wani the 
youth of both sexes, and of every generation, from the paths 
of transgression. In this dark group stand the infamous wife 
of Potiphar, the sorceress of Endor, the blood-thirsty, incestuous 
Herodias, with her dancing daughter, and the notorious queens, 
Athaliah and Jezebel, whose whole royal authority was employed 
in subverting the worship of Jehovah. Here also, we find, though 
partly concealed from view by an overhanging veil of mystery, 
such characters as the memorable but nameless wife of Lot, 
the ill fated wife of the Levite mentioned in the book of Judges, 
the treacherous Delilah, and the hypocritical Sapphira, wife of 
Ananias. 

The second division embraces all those, who, once proverbial 
for their unholy lives, were converted, and so changed by the 
grace of God, that they afterwards became as illustrious for 
faith and piety, as they had formerly been noted for their de- 
pravity. To this group of redeemed ones — brands plucked 
from the burning — belongs Rahab of Jericho, who is one of 
the only two women mentioned in Paul's long list of faith's wor- 



212 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTEK 

thies. Here also, we behold, among others, the woman of Sa- 
maria, Mary Magdalene, the damsel of Philippi, and that poor 
condemned outcast from the mercy of man to whom Jesus said, 
'* Go and sin no more.'' These remarkable trophies of saving 
grace are, doubtless, set forth in the gallery of Scripture to 
exemplify the great truth, that no life can be so wretched and 
hopeless, no character so lost to virtue and sunk so low in sin, 
as to be beyond the pale of Christian sympathy, or the power 
of divine grace. 

The third class is the largest of all. It is made up of all those 
whose lives flow mingling to the end with manifold currents of good 
and evil ; now the one and now the other predominating, and giv- 
ing color to the stream. It is composed of mixed characters, in 
which nature seems to struggle with grace for the mastery, and in 
which it is difficult at times to say whether sin or grace most 
abounds. There is a constant alternatiou of light and shadow. 
We see images of beauty amid broken fragments, treasures 
of heaven in earthen vessels, jewels of immortahty in caskets 
of clay. We see the bright light of the sun softened down and 
attenuated to a slender shadowy outline, and reflected from the 
dark edge of the moon — the graces of faith, hope and charity, 
shining thus through manifold obstacles of human infirmity and 
sinful passion. To this group, which comes the nearer down to 
our own experience of life only to give us the greater encour- 
agement for rising above earth and earthly scenes, may be 
assigned Eve, first in virtue and first in transgression ; Sarah 
the devoted but impatient wife ; Hagar the ungrateful maid ; 
Eebekah, the partial mother ; Miriam, the true hearted, but 
ambitious sister of Moses ; Martha, the energetic, faithful, but 
care-burdened friend of Jesus : and Salome, the aspiring mo- 
ther of Zebedee's children. 



IN THE BIBLE. 213 

The fourth class consists of those in whom the world has 
found no blemish — all light without a shadow, all beauty with- 
out a fault. Their characters appear before us in unsullied 
purity — not because they had attained perfection, for, like all 
others, they were sinful by nature, and only partially sanctified 
by grace — but because the pen of inspiration has, purposely, 
given us their virtues, and left their sins and imperfections 
unrecorded. In this radiant group may be seen Deborah, the 
sublime, heroic prophetess and mother in Israel ; Hannah, the 
devout mother of Samuel ; Abigail, the prudent wife of David ; 
Ruth, the lovely Moabitess ; and Esther, queen of queens, in 
the Old Testament ; and, in the New, Anna, the prophetess ; 
Priscilla, the Jewess ; Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist ; 
Mary, of Bethany ; Mary, the mother of our Lord ; Eunice 
and Lois, the mother and grandmother of Timothy, and that 
elect lady, who, of all the hundred, stands nearest to our own 
times. It was important that we should have some specimens 
of woman at her best estate — pictures of the genial, sunny- 
side of human nature — and these stand forth as the finest 
models which human nature, sanctified by grace, has yet real- 
ized in its advance towards perfection. These portraits stand 
out upon the canvas, painted with " colors dipped in heaven," 
to give the world assurance of what lovely woman may become 
when most adorned by grace, and of what she will become 
in a world where there is no sin. These are like apples of gold 
in pictures of silver. 

As face answereth unto face in water, and the heart of man 
to man, as the dark mountains of the shore and the bright 
skies over head are alike mirrored upon the smooth and glassy 
surface of the lake, even so may every woman find her own 
exact image here reflected back, with every form and feature, 



214 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

every line of beauty or deformity, from some one of the 
hundred. Here may she see herself in the truest of all mirrors, 
drawn to the life by an infallible pencil, daguerreotyped by 
the clear sun-light of heaven. And thus may she learn how 
to overcome or avoid the imperfections of nature, and to adorn 
herself with every attraction of grace, and glory, and divinity. 
Women of every rank in society, every grade of intellect, every 
sphere of fortune, and every stamp of character, may here find 
a likeness and a counterpart, ranging from the wealthy Shuna- 
mite, or the wise woman of Tekoa, or Huldah in the college, or 
the queen of the South, down to the poor widow of Sarepta 
with her pot of oil, and the little maid of Israel, captive in a 
strange land. In these tranquil depths of antiquity, in these 
pure and crystal waters of inspired truth, more than in all the 
classic fountains of Greece and Rome — more, too, than in all 
the streams of modern poetry and fiction — may our much-loved 
daughters behold the true outlines of celestial virtue and beauty, 
reflected, as from the bosom of a mountain-lake, spread out 
beneath o^er-arching skies, and environed by hills and banks of 
green. Here, on the one side, in these bright images of grace 
and loveliness, reflected from the heavens above, they may dis- 
cern those lineaments of character, which, if imitated, shall 
make them scarcely less than angels. And there, on the other, 
in those darker groups, reflected from the rugged rocks on the 
shore, may they trace the lines of transgression, which need 
only to be followed to render them little better than fiends or 
arch-angels fallen. And thus, from a whole survey, both of the 
evil and the good, of things which are lovely and things which 
are unutterable, shall they come away, as from a vision into the 
unseen world, with the grand lesson upon their hearts, that, 
" the character of woman, like the snow, is the fairest thing oa 



IN THE BIBLE. 215 

earth when fair, and the foulest when foul and mingled with 
the mire/' 

IV. — PICTURE OF EYE. 

But, after this liasty, bird^s-eye view of the picture in its 
several groups, let us now approach a little nearer, and take a 
more particular survey of some of the individual characters that 
stand forth most prominently on the scene. In so wide a field, 
where every object is full of interest, but where time will not 
permit us to gaze on all, nor linger long on any, we shall feel 
at liberty to select those points which please us most. As w^e 
pass along this crowded gallery of Scripture, enriched by the 
contributions of so many centuries, let us single out, for a minu- 
ter view, those characters in the several groups, which have 
attained the greatest celebrity, either by the prominence of 
their stations, the brightness of their talents, or the loveliness 
of their virtues. 

Next to the virgin mother of our Saviour — and, in some 
respects, even before her — -the most notable and gifted woman 
of the Bible was Eve, daughter of God, wife of Adam, mother 
of mankind, and queen of the new -created world. Talk we of 
high nobility, and royal blood, and illustrious descent ? Here 
is one from whom all the royal lines of earth have sprung — a 
woman crowned with glory by the birth-right of an earlier ori- 
gin, and invested with sovereignty by the imposition of a 
mightier hand than any other could ever boast. Talk we of 
wdsdom, and knowledge, and genius ? Here is one whose clear 
intellect, undimmed by folly, unsullied by a sin, and unindebted 
to the toils of pupilage, was the direct workmanship of Him 
who poured intelligence into the mind of angel and archangel, 



216 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

cherubim and seraphim. Talk we of happiness and virtue ? 
Here is one, who, alone of women, tasted that blessedness which 
springs from a state of absolute perfection ; whose soul, created 
in the image of the righteous and holy God, was the seat of 
every human perfection, and whose person was the centre of 
attraction to everything that dwelt in Eden. Talk we of beauty? 
Here is one, with the smile of heaven in her eye, the dew of 
youth on her cheek, and the sun-light of immortality on her 
brow ; whose intellectual and moral beauty of the soul, fit com- 
panion for such a dwelling-place, shone forth in every gesture 
and movement of that fearfully and wonderfully-made body which 
was the last and highest material production of creative power. 
The artists of every generation, vyiog with each other to 
make the canvas speak or marble breathe, and, in their deep- 
est meditations, calling up every image of beauty from the tra- 
ditions of antiquity, the studies of the great masters, the walks 
of nature, and the realms of imagination, when they would give 
the world their heau ideal of perfection in one finished model, 
have essayed their utmost skill, and reached the chef-d^cBuvrt 
of the pencil and the chisel, as they have reproduced Eve in 
Paradise. The human mind can go no farther in its conception 
of the beautiful, than when it pictures to itself the character 
and person of Eve on the morning of her creation. Blest with 
the companionship of Adam and the favor of God, enjoying the 
wilb'ng homage of all animated nature, and sovereignty over all 
the creatures of God, possessing a heart in harmony with all 
the works of God, and with God himself, she was beautiful her- 
self, and she saw beauty in everything around her. She tasted 
the cup of perfect, unalloyed felicity, and she diffused Joy 
through all that Paradise over which both God and man had 
delighted to crown her queen. 



IN THE BIBLE. 217 

The spirit of poesy, too, in its sublimest song, has vied with 
painting and sculpture in bodying forth its highest conception 
of the beautiful ; and, in the Eve of Milton, we have one of the 
noblest contributions that human genius ever laid upon the 
altar of the Bible. As a commentary on the marriage relation, 
instituted in Eden when God pronounced the " twain one flesh," 
as a pi(iture of perfect conjugal affection and domestic bliss, as 
the utterance of a heart alive to nature and in deepest sym- 
pathy with all that was beautiful in the universe, what can 
exceed these words of Eve^s address to Adam ? 

*' Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet 
With charm of earliest birds ; pleasant the sun, 
When first on this delightful land he spreads 
His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower, 
Ghstering with dew; fragrant the fertile earth. 
After soft showers, and sweet the coming on 
Of grateful evening mild ; then silent night, 
With this, her solemn bird, and this fair moon, 
And theie, the gems of heaven, her starry train ; 
But neither breath of morn, when she ascends 
With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun 
On this deUghtful land, nor herb, fruit, flower, 
Glistering with dew, nor fragrance after showers, 
Nor grateful evening mild, nor silent night, 
With this, her solemn bird, nor walk by moon, 
Nor glittering starlight, without thee is sweet." 

But alas ! how soon was this scene of joy and beauty changed 
to woe and death, and Eden lost in the waste wilderness ! 
How suddenly did this sun of glory go down while it was yet 
day I How was the gold become dim, and the most fine gold 
changed, and the crown fallen from the head I Through the 
temptation of the Prince of Darkness this bright and happy one, 

10 



218 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

who had been created only a little lower than the angels, sinned 
against God and brought death into the world with all our woe. 
She, the first woman, wife and mother of our race, who, while 
sinless, had stood as a model of immaculate perfection and 
glory, now stands as the most memorable example on the scroll 
of time to teach her daughters that it is an evil and bitter 
thing to sin against God. , 



y. SARAH AND REBEKAH. 

After Eve, the next most remarkable woman of the Old Testa- 
ment — who, indeed, is oftener referred to in the New than any 
other — is Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and mother of Isaac. 
The sacred historian represents her as a woman of exceeding 
beauty. *' Behold," says her husband, "thou art fair to look 
upon," and, wherever she went, she attracted the attention of 
the people and rulers of the land as one that was *' very fair." 
So great was the admiration which she won, even from kings 
and princes, that, on more than one occasion, Abraham thought 
his life endangered by her beauty, and endeavored to conceal 
the wife in the sister. 

The natural beauty of form and feature, like the intellectual 
and moral beauty of the soul, is the gift of God, and is no more 
to be underrated or despised than other good gifts. Of course, 
the mere material beauty of the outward form cannot be com- 
pared, in value, with this higher spiritual beauty of the char- 
acter. But, as evincing the handiwork of the infinitely wise 
God, everything beautiful has a claim to be admired and loved. 
It is just as proper to admire and to prize beauty of person in 
woman, as the beauty of the rose and the rainbow, the flowing 



li^ THE BIBLE. 219 

river and the waving grain, the blue mountain and the bending 
sky. God has not made the human form so fair, and implanted 
within us an appreciative sense of the beautiful, and then for- 
bidden us to admire what is lovely. True ; female beauty is a 
frail, fading flower. And so is the beauty of the rose, and the 
rainbow, and the summer landscape. True, also, it is a danger- 
ous gift. And so are the gifts of intellect and education. 
Talents, angel-bright, may be perverted and abused not less 
than material beauty ; and history will show that man has per 
verted his strong arm and his iron will to bad purposes just as 
often as woman has abused that influence which springs from 
personal beauty. 

But, in the case of Sarah, outward personal beauty was found 
in happy combination with the nobler spiritual beauty of a lofty 
mind and a virtuous character. Celebrated and admired in that 
age for her unusual share of natural gifts and graces, she has 
become still more distinguished through all succeeding ages as 
an example of deep womanly affections — her faith in God, 
her conjugal fidelity, her maternal tenderness, and her self-sac- 
rificing devotion to her husband. By the one she was an object 
of attraction to her contemporaries ; by the other she has be- 
come an object of admiration to all who have come after 
her. 

And though her faith did sometimes stagger at the long de- 
lay of the promises, though her generous, devoted, high-toned 
spirit was sometimes ruffled and over-mastered by ingratitude 
and disobedience, yet in this she is but an illustration of a fact 
which has occurred a thousand times, that the greatest charac- 
ters may bend under the weight of the petty annoyances of daily 
life, after standing erect under the pressure of all the storms 
and battles of great occasions. She could not bear the inso- 



220 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

lence of the ungrateful bondmaid and her mocking son, although 
she was equal to the greatest trials which any woman could 
be called to endure — eveu the voluntary surrender of her hus- 
band, in order to accomplish the Divine promises, and then the 
strange sacrifice of the very son of those promises. Adequate, 
as she was, to all that a wife and mother could be called to do, 
or suffer on a large scale, she failed most signally in the ordin- 
ary duties of a mistress. 

The name of Sarah, associated as it is with the father of the 
faithful, and the heir of all the promises, notwithstanding her 
errors and infirmities, stands preeminent among women in that 
** cloud of witnesses," whose acts of faith are recounted by the 
apostle Paul to the Hebrews, with the high eulogium. That of 
them the world was not worthy. To the character of Sarah 
the apostle Peter also makes honorable allusion, in exhorting 
the wives and daughters of the church to the. cultivation of all 
the womanly Christian graces. 

" Let not your adorning be the outward adorning of plaiting 
the hair, and wearing of gold, and putting on of apparel. But 
let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not cor- 
ruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which 
is, in the sight of God, of great price. For after this manner, 
in the old time, the holy women, also, who trusted in God, 
adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own hus- 
bands. Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord ; 
whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well and are not afraid 
with any amazement." 

Now we are sometimes afraid, and with no little amazement, 
that many of our fair country-women have quite forgotten this 
exhortation. In these days of outward adorning and elegant 
accomplishments, of many schools, and many books of new cos- 



IN THE BIBLE. 221 

tumes and woman^s rights, of social reforms and conventions to 
change the ordinances of God, we very much fear that many of 
our fine ladies would think it no honor to be called the daugh- 
ters of Sarah. Of what authority can either Paul or Sarah be 
to those, whose highest conception of the coming millennium 
seems to be, that it will be a time, now very near, when all pa- 
rents shall be in subjection to their children, and all husbands 
to their wives ? In such halcyon days, '* of bliss surpassing 
fable," when juvenility shall reign without a rival, and the world 
have its second boyhood and girlhood, it may be questioned 
whether your modern fashionable lady, deeply read in novels, 
deeply learned in etiquette, deeply dyed in social philosophy, 
would not wholly repudiate the gentility and ladyship of Sarah 
and the other women of the olden time who communed with 
God, held converse with the angels, and had their daily walk 
with the nobles of the earth. 

But to proceed. One of the most interesting and lovely charac- 
ters amongst all these ladies of the olden time is that of Rebekah, 
the youthful bride, the matronly wife, the aged companion of 
Isaac. Like Sarah, she had her faults, but they are lost in the 
superior lustre of her virtues. It will suffice, at present, to re- 
fer to a single passage in her history. 'Tis one of interest to all 
— of especial interest to all young gentlemen and ladies who 
may need counsel touching one of the most important transac- 
tions of life. It is her youthful marriage with Isaac, the man of 
her choice, and the man too of her parents' choice. In the ex- 
ample of Isaac and Rebekah — one of the best, indeed, in all 
the Bible as it regards married life — we find this sacred institu- 
tion entered upon, and observed through a long life, precisely 
as God ordained it in Eden, and as Jesus Christ re-ordained it 
in the New Testament when he said . " For this cause shall a 



222 TYPES OF FEMALE CHAKACTER 

man forsake his father and his mother and cleave unto his wifC; 
and they two shall be one flesh." 

The times are changed, and the customs of society changed, 
but this first detailed account of marriage is not without its in- 
terest and intruction for the youth of our day. If such a mis- 
sion," says Dr. Kitto, speaking of Abraham's servant, '^ were at 
all possible under our own system of manners, it would certainly 
not be among the girls gathered round the village pump that 
the messenger would expect to find a match, in all respects suit- 
able, for the son of his wealthy and well-born master. But in 
that age, w^hen, as now in the same countries, the young females 
of the most honorable families discharge the commonest domes- 
tic oflBces, and to whom the fetching of water from the well out- 
side the town was a service in which peculiar pleasure was 
taken, from its enabling them to meet their companions, the ser- 
vant knew that the young females whom he might shortly ex- 
pect to see at that place, must include the very class from which 
his choice was to be made." 

Now, you may be somewhat acquainted with the writings of 
classical antiquity ; you may be more or less familliar with the 
pages of our modern poetry and fiction ; you may have read 
much of history, biography, and the drama ; but it may be 
safely affirmed, that in all your reading, whether ancient or 
modern, sacred or profane, you cannot find anything of equal 
compass on the subject of marriage, so interesting, so instructive, 
and so beautiful, as that long twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis 
which tells us all w^e need to know about the wedding of Isaac 
and Rebekah. If you will read it carefully again you may no- 
tice four circumstances that render it, notwithstanding its anti- 
quity, a manual of instruction to every young man and 
woman, in choosing a companion for life, as much better as it 



IN THE BIBLE. 223 

is shorter than Hannah More's '' Coelebs in Search of a Wife," 
or Goldsmith's play '' She Stoops to Conquer," or any other un- 
inspired production. 

First, it was a marriage, literally and truly, in accordance 
with the will of the Lord. This was regarded as an essential 
point alike by the young people and their parents on both sides. 
Every step, from the beginning to its consummation, by all the 
parties engaged in it, even to the servant who went for Rebekah, 
was taken in reliance upon Divine Providence, and with prayer 
for the blessing of heaven upon the nuptials. The whole matter 
had been committed to the Lord's direction, as every marriage 
ought to be. 

Secondly, it was free, cordial and unrestrained on Rebekah's 
part as well as on the part of Isaac, and on the part of their 
parents. The choice of her own heart was consulted and 
respected as the ultimate authority. There was no compulsion 
by parental dictation. The parents decided nothing, and gave 
the messenger no answer till her own decision had been made. 
"Wilt thou go with this man?" And she said, " I will go." 
Prompt, courageous and beautiful reply ! But had she said 
" No," there the matter would have ended. They would not 
have compelled her to go. Her negative would have stopped 
all further proceedings. 

Thirdly, it was no wayward, foolish, and ungrateful runaway 
match. Rebekah decided for herself, but decided in accordance 
with the wishes of her parents. Had they said "No," she 
would not have gone. Their negative, like hers, would have 
stopped all further proceedings. She would not have married at 
all rather than marry in opposition to the wishes of her parents. 
Thus to the parent and the child, belonged a rightful veto as 
God and nature intended it should belong in every case of mar- 
riage. Do you ask. What is a young lady to do, when her pa- 



224 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

rents oppose her marriage in a particular case. We answer, Do 
nothing ; but remain as she is. Do not marry at all rather than 
marry under such circumstances. There had better be no mar- 
riage, while the world stands, than marriage in defiance of pa- 
rental authority. It is a sinful breach of the great law of na- 
ture and of heaven, when a parent compels his daughter to 
marry against her own heart's choice ; and it is no less so for 
a daughter to marry in defiance of the will of her parents. The 
young woman, who is capable of bringing upon the once happy 
home of her childhood, all that desolation which is implied in 
an elopement, and of inflicting such unmitigated cruelty upon 
the mother to whom she owes the highest of all earthly obliga- 
tions, is, to say the very least, unfit herself to be a wife and 
mother ; and the world would be no loser if she should never 
marry. We speak with emphasis upon the subject; because 
anything, which, in the name of marriage, thus tramples upon 
the sacredness of home, and the rights of parents, however it 
may be tolerated in our fashionable society, we can only regard 
as an evil and an outrage, as abhorrent to nature as it is contrary 
to the law of God. 

Fourthly, the courtship of Isaac and Rebekah, unlike many 
in our day, was one of perfect candor, of straight-forward, 
business-like simplicity, and of admirable delicacy and fair-deal- 
ing on all sides. There was no double-dealing, no coquetry, no 
unwomanly vacillation ; no unmanly breach of contract, no 
saying one thing and meaning another ; no female diplomacy, 
no modern manoeuvering. The young and lovely Rebekah shines 
forth as the model of artless innocence, of open-hearted truth- 
fulness, of womanly decision, of lady-like delicacy, and of 
devoted piety and trust in God. And as for Isaac, walking 
afield at eventide, to meditate, holding quiet communion with 
nature, and lifting up his eyes, at last, to behold the camels 



IN THE BIBLE. 225 

coming, and Rebekah with them, how can we think otherwise 
of him than as the most blessed and happy man of his day ? 

From a review of the whole case, we think there is much to 
admire in this ancient marriage ; and there are many lessons 
which our much-loved daughters might learn from its natural 
simplicity and beauty. There is more real refinement, and 
more of the true dignity and glory of woman in such a marriage 
as Rebekah's than in all the clandestine elopements, and roman- 
tic adventures, and sentimental wooings by moonshine, and 
mercenary bargainings for wealth and ambition, that our nov- 
elists have ever depicted, or our modern belles ever sighed for. 



VI. — CHARACTER OP DEBORAH. 

But let us turn now to a type of female character altogether 
different from any we have yet contemplated ; let us turn from 
the private to the public — from the tranquil scenes of domestic 
life to the stirring incidents of the political. It is upon an 
inspired prophetess of the Lord that we are now to look. 

Seven of the hundred women of the Bible bear the title of 
prophetess, not to mention the four virgin daughters of Philip, 
the Evangelist. These are, the good Anna, of the gospel his- 
tory, and the wicked, self-styled prophetess, Jezebel, of the 
Book of Revelation ; and, in the Old Testament, the wife of 
Isaiah, the Noadiah of Nehemiah, Huldah of Jerusalem, Mu-i- 
am the sister of Moses, and Deborah. Let us consider, for a 
moment, the last of these, as being the most remarkable and 
the most gifted of the prophetic group, and possessing, too, as 
much of the heroic as the prophetic spirit. 

She was a wife and a mother in Israel ; and, no doubt, faith- 

10* 



226 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

fullj discharged all those duties which constitute the glory of 
woman. But, from the brief record of her public acts and the 
success of her daring achievements, as well as from her sublime 
poetry, it is manifest that she possessed, in rare combination, 
many of the highest intellectual and moral endowments. She 
united, at once, the genius of the poet, the administrative 
ability of the civil ruler, the wisdom of the judge, the courage 
of the military leader, and that high-toned patriotic enthusiasm, 
which made her the deliverer of her country when there was 
not a man, in all the twelve tribes, for the space of twenty years, 
who had dared to strike a blow for its deliverance. Kaised up 
and inspired of God for the occasion, called first to be the civil 
head of the nation because there was no one else competent to 
the place, and then, most reluctantly, called to take the field at 
the head of its armies, when all hearts were quailing for fear, 
though herself undaunted before the multitudinous array of 
Israel's proud invaders, this wife of Lapidoth and mother in 
Israel went forth from her quiet home beneath the palm-tree ; 
and, infusing her own indomitable spirit into Barak and her 
countrymen, turned not back till every foeman had been driven 
from the land, and in her sublime words, '* the stars in their 
courses had fought against Sisera." Israel triumphed gloriously. 
But it was a greater triumph for woman than for Israel. From 
the men of that generation, and for her sex, she won a triumph 
which should stand as a memorial in all generations to come. 
If there were no other proof on record of the strength of female 
character, and the capacity of female intellect, this signal victory 
and triumphal song of Deborah would remain as a perpetual 
monument to the intellectual and spiritual glory of woman. 

Many subsequent triumphs have been won by woman in 
almost every field of human action. But to Deborah belongs 



IN THE BIBLE. 227 

the distinction of being the pioneer of her sex in this depart- 
ment of greatness. The true sphere of woman, in which Provi- 
dence intended, as a general rule, that she should win her 
highest glory, is not the battle-field, nor the cabinet of state, 
nor the hall of legislation, nor, indeed, the throne of empire. 
But there are examples enough in history, like that of Deborah, 
to show that when occasion calls for it — which, indeed, is not 
often — woman is capable of the very greatest achievements in 
every sphere of human enterprise, in every field of intellectual 
and moral effort. The commanding influence of Deborah, the 
poetic genius of Sappho, the martial spirit of Zenobia, the 
administrative ability of Queen Elizabeth, the statesman-like 
character of Margaret of Denmark, the heroic courage and 
achievements of Joan of Arc, Flora Macdonald, and Grace Dar- 
ling, the versatile talents of Madame De Stael, the classical 
learning of Madame Dacier, the scientific attainments of Mrs. 
Somervilie, not to mention a hundred others, stand not only as 
an evidence of what woman has done in all the walks which man 
has claimed as his own, but as an argument for what she could 
do, if all those walks were as open to her as they are to him. 
Oh, yes ; there can be no doubt at all that woman has the 
ability, or, what amounts to the same, could very soon acquire 
the ability, to manage the world, and manage it very well too, 
if man would resign the sceptre and change places with her. 
But then there can be no doubt at all, that she would be the 
greatest loser by the change ; nay, she would lose infinitely 
more than she or the world could gain by such a bargain. 

Now, it adds a peculiar lustre to . the character of Deborah, 
that she did not seek to sink the woman in the warrior. She 
could play the heroine on a grand scale, when occasion called 
for it, in the deliverance of her country. But she undertook it 



228 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

reluctantly, feeling that it was not her congenial element. The 
victory she won was worthy of the cause she had espoused. 
Her triumphal hymn was worthy of the victory. And all w^ere 
worthy of such a woman, wife, and mother. With equal truth 
and beauty it has been remarked of her, by the accomplished 
author of ^'Woman's Record," that, **she did not assume for 
herself the title of Jii^dge^ HeroiTie, or ProjphetesSj though she 
was all these, but she chose the tender name of Mother as the 
highest style of woman ; and described the utter misery of her 
people as arousing her to assume the high station of a patriot 
and leader. It was not ambition, but love, that stirred her 
noble spirit, and nerved her for the duties of government. She 
is a remarkable exemplification of the spiritual influence woman 
has wielded for the benefit of humanity when the energies of 
man seemed entirely overcome.'' 

Her song of victory, which fills up the fifth chapter of the 
Book of Judges, is one of the earliest as it is one of the sublim- 
est poems in the world. It breathes, in every line, with patri- 
otic ardor, with lofty enthusiasm, with heroic courage, with 
thanksgiving to God, all poured forth from a heart glowing 
with poetic beauty, and swelling with the afflatus of prophetic 
inspiration. Nobly and truly has it been characterized by a 
late writer in the following words : *' The battle is over : and 
now comes the great song of praise and triumph — one of the 
sublimest pages of poetry within the compass of the Scriptures. 
It is the only war-song in existence that has the Divine mingled 
with the human, the very deepest and sweetest spirit of grateful 
piety with the loftiest temper of patriotism and national enthusi- 
asm. Its sublime apostrophes, its bursts of feeling, its rapid 
and startling changes of thought, its lightning-like descriptions, 
its comprehensive historic allusions, its questionings, its solemn 



IN THE BIBLE. 229 

adjurations, its grandeur of faitli in God, and gratitude to him, 
all make it one of the most extraordinary compositions in the 
Bible. If we should consider it an effort of human genius, it 
would be unrivalled ; there is nothing to be compared with it 
in the world of literature." 



VII. ESTHER AND RUTH. 

But, from the heroic and warlike, turn now and look upon 
quite a different picture. Look at Esther in her majesty — after 
Eve the most queenly woman of all the hundred women of the 
Bible — once Hadassah, the poor orphan girl of the Jewish cap- 
rivity, now the successor of Vashti, queen of an empire extend- 
ing from India to Ethiopia. When did imagination ever dream 
of a greater and stranger change of fortune than hers ; from 
the orphan to the queen, from the prisoner of the captivity to 
the mistress of the palace, from the poor exile to the throne of 
the greatest empire in the world ? She was beautiful ; and 
that had been the stepping stone to her exaltation. But her per- 
sonal beauty was the very least of her charms. * There was a 
higher spiritual beauty, a strength of character, which was to 
all her outward graces, more, even, than the fine-wrought tex- 
ture is to the polish of the marble. Behold her, at the zenith 
of her power, holding fast her religion in the midst of all the 
blandishments and luxuries of an oriental court, fasting and 
praying for her down-trodden countrymen. See her after three 
davs and ni^rhts of anxious communion with her God, out of 
the love she bears her kindred and the institutions of her 
fathers, making up her mind to the great issue ; and then, with 
a decision and self-sacrifice worthy of a martyr venturing her 



230 TYPES OF FEMALE CHAEACTER 

life, her all, for the good of her people, with the memorable 
answer, *' If I perish, I perish." 

There was decision of character for you. There was courage 
of the highest order. There was the sublimity of true moral 
greatness, worthy of the Jewess and worthy of the woman. 
There, beneath that form of unusual loveliness, dwelt a soul of 
extraordinary attributes — a spirit of patriotism and religious 
principle that could look danger and death in the face, and 
calmly risk all it had on earth for the common good of the 
nation. But the victim was not needed. The intention was 
accepted for the deed. She had evinced a heroic confidence in 
God worthy of a daughter of Abraham ; and, by it, she saved 
the seed of Abraham from extermination. We know not a 
finer specimen of female biography, nor a loftier example of 
piety holding fast its profession through all temptation, nor a 
more delightful illustration of the special, over-ruling Provi- 
dence of God, than is exhibited in the life and fortunes of this 
beautiful orphan girl, Hadassah ; this majestic, self-sacrificing 
Queen Esther. Risking all, willing to lose all for others, she 
gained all, both for others and herself. 

Let us leave, for a moment, the palaces of the great and the 
noble, whilst w^e turn back to look upon a lowly scene of domes- 
tic, rural life. And what picture of youthful piety and love is 
this that stands so invitingly before us now ? 'Tis Ruth, the 
native of a heathen land, the daughter of an idolatrous race, 
now converted to the faith of Israel. 'Tis Ruth, cleaving to 
Naomi with a filial and a religious devotion, which says : 
*' Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following 
after thee ; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou 
lodgest I will lodge ; thy people shall be my people, and thy 
God my God Where thou diest I will die, and there will I be 



IN THE BIBLE. 231 

buried ; the Lord do so to me, if aught but death part thee and 
me." Tis the lovely and virtuous Euth, gleaning in the harvest- 
fields of Bethlehem, becoming the lawful wife of Boaz, and ere 
long a mother in Israel — a mother of that royal race from 
which should spring the Saviour of the world, himself to be born 
in that very Bethlehem where Euth followed the reapers, and to 
be born of a damsel as humble as herself. 

In the beautiful and instructive story of Euth, her choice to 
go with Naomi is, perhaps, the most interesting passage. It 
was evidently the turning point in the destiny of the young and 
widowed Moabitess. It exhibits her feelings in deciding an 
alternative, on which depended all her fortunes for this world, 
and, it may be, her souFs salvation in the world to come. It 
represents }}ev in the act of meeting and settling the greatest 
issue of her life — the question, whether she would stay at home 
and live on with her kindred in idolatry, or give up all for the 
people and the service of the only living and true God. 

She chose the latter. We know not how long and painful 
the struggle may have been which brought her to that decision. 
We only know her choice as the opposite of her sister-in-law^s ; 
and there was no motive short of religion adequate to such a 
choice. Certainly there was nothing in the external fortunes 
of Naomi to captivate her heart. Her language, however, is 
more than that of mere human friendship. It reveals the 
intense energy and decision of a soul, voluntarily relinquishing 
all the ties of country and kindred, to choose a portion in the 
God of Israel and an humble lot among his people. To all 
the difficulties and hardships suggested by Naomi, she replied 
with the resolute devotion and ardor of one whose heart w^as 
fixed, '' Entreat me not to leave thee." All the considerations 
of personal interest and all the prospects of wordly good were 



232 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

against the choice she made. These had ah^eady prevailed 
with Orpah to decide the other way. Euth's language shows 
that with her the main element and motive of the choice was 
religion. She decided to go with Naomi to a strange land, 
rather than return to her mother's house in her own land, 
because Naomi's people were God's people, and Naomi's God 
the true God. 

It was a noble choice, most touchingly expressed, and most 
faithfully carried out. Most cheerfully she encountered all the 
hardships of a foreign land and all the privations of extreme 
poverty for the sake of the true religion. And she did not lose 
her reward. 

She verified thus early the saying, which was long afterwards 
written, ** Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, 
and of that which is to come." 

As she toiled there in the fields of Boaz for her daily bread, 
an unknown stranger among the reapers, how far from any of 
ber youthful imaginings and day-dreams of the future, must 
have been the thought, that the blood which then coursed 
through her veins, and mantled on her cheek, would descend 
and flow through many of the most renowned personages of the 
world's history — through David and Solomon, Hezekiah and 
Josiah, Mary and Jesus. Her history, wonderful in the lowli- 
ness of its beginning, and wonderful in the grandeur of its 
termination in the great Messiah, is, indeed, a striking illustra- 
tion of the fact that truth is often stranger and more beautiful 
than fiction. ^'Her example," says Mrs. Hale, ''shows what 
woman can do, if she is true to the best impulses of her nature, 
and faithfully works in her mission, and waits the appointed 
time.'^ Her life, like that of Esther, so humble in its origin 
and so illustrious in its results, is a lesson to teach us how, 



IN THE BIBLE. tdo3 

in the Providence of God, great effects flow from little 

causes. 

Her exaltartion may call to mind many similar, though less 
remarkable cases, in modern history. Take one example. 
Early in the seventeenth century, a poor English girl went up 
from the country to London to work her way through the world 
as a servant. By industry, economy, and an early marriage, she 
was soon placed above want. Her first husband dyuig, she 
then married Edward Hyde, a young lawyer, who became Earl 
of Clarendon, and Lord High Chaucellor of the State. Her 
daughter married the Duke of York, who became James II. of 
England ; and her two grand-daughters, Mary and Anne, be- 
came, successively, queens of Great Britain — two, indeed, of 
the best of all the Eoglish sovereigns. And thus was she, like 
Euth and Esther, raised up to become a fountain-head of influ- 
ence, which should be extended over one of the greatest king- 
doms of the earth and perpetuated to the end of time. 

The Bible does not tell us that Euth was fair. Not a word 
is said about her personal appearance. And yet there is some- 
thing in the whole narrative which seems naturally to suggest 
the idea that she was beautiful. Every reader gets that 
impression, instinctively, unconsciously; he cannot tell why, or 
from what. Everything that has been uttered about her, every 
picture that has been drawn, seems to take that point for 
granted. The beauty of her character seems to throw its soft, 
sunny reflection over her whole person. She is, to every ima- 
gination, a poetic image — an impersonation of the beautiful not 
less than a historic character. We love to think of her in that 
light, as we do of Eve, and the very silence of the Bible seems 
to favor the illusion. As we fancy how she looked in the early 
dawn, threading her way with elastic steps through the ripen- 



234 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

ing wheat-fields of Boaz, we think of her as one who might 
have prompted the lines of Scott : 

" Ne'er did Grecian chisel trace 
A nymph, a naiad, or a grace 
Of finer form or lovelier face." 

Euth is, indeed, in some respects, the gem of the whole gal- 
lery of Scripture portraits. And, as we read her beautiful 
poetic story, we almost wonder that her great-grandson, the 
sweet Psalmist of Israel, did not sometimes tune his harp to 
weave a chaplet of song around the name and memory of such 
a mother. But, for aught we. know, he did. Amongst the 
many tributes which the modern muse has paid to her loveliness 
and virtue, we may select, as an appropriate close for our brief 
sketch, the following lines from Hood, which, though somewhat 
fanciful, are certainly very beautiful ; 

** She stood breast high amid the corn, 
Clasped by the golden light of morn, 
Like the sweet-heart of the sun, 
Who many a golden kiss had won. 
On her cheeks an autumn plush 
Deeply ripened — such a blush 
In the midst of brown was born, 
Like red poppies grown with corn. 
Round her eyes her tresses fell — 
Which were blackest none could tell ; 
But long lashes veiled a light, 
That had else been all too bright. 
And her hat, with shady brim. 
Made her tressy forehead dim ; 
There she stood amid the stooks, 
Praising God with sweetest looks. 



IN THE BIBLE. 235 

Sure, I said, heaven did not mean, 
Where I reap thou shouldst but glean ; 
Lay thy sheaf adown and come 
Share my harvest and my home." 



VIII. JEZEBEL AND ATHALIAH. 

By way of contrast, let us turn, for a moment, from these 
virtuous and holy women, whose names distinguish two of the 
most beautiful books of Scripture, to gaze upon two others of 
a totally different character. In Jezebel and Athaliah, the 
mother and daughter, one the queen of Israel and the other of 
Judah, one the wife and the other the daughter of Ahab, we 
behold a double incarnation of wickedness. Companions alike 
in their heathen idolatry, in their inordinate ambition, in their 
unrelenting cruelty and blood-thirstiness, in their successful 
usurpation of royal authority, and in their mad rebellion against 
Jehovah, they were associates in the awful doom, which, at 
last, overtook them. The crimes of Athaliah, in the destruc- 
tion of her grandchildren, were even more aggravated than 
those of Jezebel. But to Jezebel, as the mother, belongs the 
greater share of the responsibility and the guilt. And accord- 
ingly, her name, like that of Judas and of Cain, has descended 
to all generations as a proverb and term of reproach. The 
vocabulary of the world cannot pronounce a more disgraceful 
stigma on a woman than to call her Jezebel. No child is ever 
named for Jezebel. 

It is a mournful but significant fact, that the darkest, 
bloodiest period, in the whole history of the Jewish nation, is 
that in which these two women of iron, seizing the reins of 
power, exercised absolute dominion over both the court and the 



236 TYPES OF FEMALE CHAEACTEK. 

people of Israel and Judah. The one, even wMle the wife of 
Ahab, by her superior talents and her iron will, was virtually 
sole sovereign of Israel. The other, the widow of Jehoram, 
with a heart of adamant, killed her grandchildren in their infancy 
that she might reign without a rival, queen of Judah. And 
whilst their influence and their lives lasted, idolatry, and crime, 
and every abomination filled the land. The Bible has, in one 
short sentence, left us a standing monument of the infamy of 
Athaliah. Speaking of her son, Ahaziah, it says : " His mother 
was his counsellor to do wickedly." Alas ! how many public 
crimes and calamities, in every age, are explained by that 
sentence. 

The deep and fearful significance of this mournful fact lies 
in this — that when woman, fired with the demon of ambition, 
once lays aside that peculiar character which God hath given 
her for a glory and a covering, and attempts to assume the 
character and play the part of man on the world's great stage, 
instead of raising manhood to the skies she only sinks it to 
the level of the brute or demon. A man does not more unsex 
himself and discredit humanity, by wearing a woman's garb and 
acting a woman's part in life, than do women degrade and 
unwoman themselves when they strive to be like men. Jezebel 
and Athaliah tried to make themselves men, and succeeded only 
in making themselves fiends. Their example is as full of warning 
as it is of woe. But they have not been without their succes- 
sors and imitators. Many others, undeterred by their awful fate, 
have attempted to play, on a larger or smaller scale, the same des- 
perate game of ambition and folly. One of the most noted instan- 
ces in moderm history is that of the highly-gifted, but eccentric 
Christina, queen of Sweden. Eestless, dissatisfied, and un- 
happy, even on the throne, because Providence had not made 



IN THE BIBLE. 237 

her a man, she at length, to the grief and mortification of her 
people, abdicated the throne, apostatized from the religion of 
her Protestant father, and left her native land to wander over 
Europe in the dress of a man. Assuming male attire, and dis- 
missing all her female attendants on the border, she renounced 
her country, her religion, her sex, and, as we think, her charac- 
ter as a woman, with the declaration : " I would become a man ; 
but it is not that I love men because they are men, but merely 
that they are not women." 

Alas ! have we not reason to fear, that the succession in this 
unwomanly and wicked folly, has not yet ceased ? Are there 
not still those who, instead of honoring that noble and glorious 
heritage of womanhood which God hath given them, are filled 
with a miserable ambition to be like men, and spend their lives 
in an open quarrel against earth and heaven, because they are 
not and cannot be men ? 



IX. HERODIAS AND HER DANCING DAUGHTER. 

In this connection it may not be out of place to intro- 
duce another mother and daughter of somewhat similar 
character from the pages of the New Testament. Among 
the very few dark pictures of female character in these later 
Scriptures, there is one that stands out prominently as a 
warning to all generations. It is that of the incestuous 
wife of Philip, and her dancing daughter, whose life of sinful 
pleasure demanded no less a sacrifice than the blood of John 
the Baptist. 

It is somewhat doubtful whether the dauditer of Herodias 
ought to be classed among the women or children of the New 



238 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

Testament at the time slie is represented as dancing before He- 
rod. She may have been a woman grown, or nearly grown, at 
that time. It is more probable, however, that she was a young 
girl, as yet entirely subservient to the will of her wicked moth- 
er. The readiness with which she let go the opportunity of 
gaining some splendid present from the king for herself, in or- 
der to gratify her mother's unreasonable and atrocious request 
for the head of John the Baptist, seems to show that she had 
not reached an age to think for herself, but was still within the 
sphere of girlhood. It was hardly to be expected that any 
thing good could come out of the Herodian family ; and the 
incident recorded of this young girl, gives a striking illustration 
of the depravity which prevailed in what might be called the 
elegant, fashionable circles of that day. It was then as it is 
now in such circles — the child was a true mirror to reflect the 
vices of the parent. 

Of all the comments we have seen on this transaction, the 
most graphic is that of Dr. Kitto, which we here give in his 
own words : *' It was his birth-day, which was celebrated with 
high festivities at court. The Jews generally disliked the cele- 
bration of birth-days : and this was one of the heathen customs 
which the Herodian family had adopted from the Romans. On 
the present occasion, Herod gave a great supper to his lords, 
high captains, and chief estates ; and, before it closed, a fair 
young girl, to whom Herod was greatly attached, was intro- 
duced, and commenced one of those solo dances for which the 
East has long been celebrated. That fair child was Salome, the 
daughter of Herodias by her former husband. With such 
marvellous grace and thrilling effect did she perform this dance, 
that Herod, already warm with wine, became excited, and, in 
the fervor of his enthusiasm, vowed that she should have what- 



IN THE BIBLE. 239 

ever she asked, even to the half of his kiugdom. Little could 
he imagine what this child had been tutored by her wicked 
mother to ask ; and he was shocked and grieved, when, instead 
of some costly bauble, she asked for the head of John the 
Baptist. The sternest man there must have shuddered to hear 
from those beautiful young lips the blood-thirsty request, atro- 
ciously specific, * Bring me here the head of John the Baptist in 
a charger/ John is not only to lose his head, but the bleeding 
trophy is to be brought to her ; it is to be brought to her there, 
that there may be no evasion ; that the high lords who have 
heard the vow, may witness its fulfillment. Then she tells how 
it is to be brought. Not in any careless way, not in a napkin, 
not held by the hair, but in a dish ; so that she — that young 
girl — may receive it into her own hands, and take it where she 
pleased, without danger of soiling her rich dress with a prophet's 
blood. This is frightful. It was done, nevertheless. A man 
was sent to behead John in prison ; and presently it was brought 
to the young princess, who, doubtless, received it with becoming 
grace, and bore it off daintily to her mother. That the girl 
could go through all this, however well tutored, seems to show 
that Salome was indeed a true daughter of Herodias. How she 
received this precious gift we are not told ; but there is a tra- 
dition that she drew forth the still warm tongue that had 
rebuked her crimes, and vengefully transfixed it with her bodkin." 
Poor young girl ! what an education had she received 1 
Her mother, no doubt, looked with pride upon her splendid 
accomplishments. What treasure had she not expended in 
teaching her to dance I And now, though so young, she was 
perfect, even in the sight of the king and all his great lords I 
An elegant dancer, with a mind utterly destitute of intellectual 
and moral culture ! Her mother had succeeded in making her 



240 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

an adept in that accomplishment, in which any stage-player 
or circus-rider might have excelled her, and had left her desti- 
tute of that intellectual grace, without which woman is a 
cipher, and of that moral grace, without which she soon 
becomes a monster. She was the daughter of a royal house, 
and she could dance, but her young hands were stained with a 
prophet's blood, chiefly because of her superiority in dancing. 
How much better would it have been for her if she had never 
learned to dance ! How much better if her name had come 
down to us, like that of another and humbler Salome, who, 
probably, never danced at all, but lives embalmed in the most \ 
precious of all memorials, as one who watched at the sepulchre | 
of Jesus. Who would now exchange the reputation, not to say ] 
the lot, of Salome, watching at the tomb, for that of Salome, the \ 
dancing daughter of a queen ? 

And what a commentary, by the w^ay, does this case afford | 
on the boasted accomplishment of dancing I The evil of danc- j 

ing consisted then, as it always has consisted, not in the dancing ! 

i 
itself, but in the things it leads to. In that case it led to a sinful \ 

excitement, a foolish oath, and an awful murder. And in how 

many cases has it led to the loss of health, the loss of life, and | 

the loss of the soul ? In how many cases has it blotted out for- "• 

ever every serious impression, and prepared the young to run a j 

career of folly and reckless dissipation ? And is it no sin for | 

Christian parents, knowing the evils to which dancing is sure to i 

lead, deliberately to teach their children this dangerous accom- ; 

plishment ? Will they give them cards, and not expect them i 

to gamble ? Will they send them to the theatre, and not \ 

expect them to be injured ? Will they send them to the race- ■ 

course, and then caution them to beware of evil influences? I 

And shall they train their children to all the " misty mazes '' 



IN THE BIBLE. 241 

of the dance, and yet, with strange inconsistencj, expect God to 
convert and save them, while thus placing one of the greatest 
obstacles in the way ? 

Salome^s dancing was evil, because it led to evil. And yet 
this was the least objectionable form of dancing. It was a solo 
dance, and that by a female ; and that too at home in her mo- 
ther's house. The advocates of our modern, promiscuous dan- 
cing, sometimes pretend to justify it by the Scriptures. But 
they forget that no such thing as the dancing of the sexes to- 
gether is to be found in the Scriptures. There are instances of 
a man dancing alone in a religious service, as David did ; and 
manyiostances where women danced with women as Miriam at 
the Red Sea ; but we can confidently affirm, that there is not a 
single example of our modern fashion of the sexes dancing to- 
gether, in all the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. No man 
can show any place in the Bible where men joined with women 
in the dance. And for this ancient custom some tolerable rea- 
son might be given. For if healthful exercise of the body 
is the thing aimed at in dancing, why not let ladies take it alone 
and under circumstances where they can get the full benefit 
of it, untrammelled by the presence of men ? Does common 
sense require people to take exercise at night in crowded suffo- 
cating rooms, in full dress, bound and girdled to very compres- 
sion ? Can you imagine anything more uncongenial to a lady's 
health than the late hours, the torturing, tight dress, and the vio- 
lent yet constrained exertion, of the ball-room ? When men per- 
form their hardest labor, they wish to be alone, or in the open air, 
or at least freed from the burden of much dress. But delicate 
ladies go through the excessive fatigues of the dance, often the 
hardest labor of their lives, the very victims and martyrs of the 
fashionable dress-maker, and all this for the sake of healthful 

11 



24-2 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

exercise ! Surely, the flimsiest of all sophistries is the pretence 
that health cau be promoted under the artificial and absurd con- 
ditions ojTbur promiscuous dancing. If health be the object, let 
ladies dance at home immediately after the morning bath, the ear- 
lier the better. If there be " a time to dance," that would be 
the best time. 

But if graceful motion be the thing aimed at, why mix it up 
with the uncouth and grotesque awkwardness of the male dan- 
cer ? As for men, they certainly can find a better species of 
exercise ; and gracefulness, in their case, is out of the question. 
We may be free to admit, there is something womanly and 
graceful in the movement of the female dancer ; though even in 
her case, the gracefulness is mainly owing to the flowing dress, 
or to personal beauty. If the lady is naturally graceful and 
comely, she would look just as well on horseback, or on a morn- 
ing or evening walk, as in the dance. If she is ugly, and badly 
dressed, no extra skill in dancing can redeem the performance 
from contempt. So that, even in the female dancer, this boast- 
ed gracefulness of movement is far more dependent upon other 
accidental circumstances, than upon any intrhisic beauty in the 
act of dancing. The grace is in the person, not in her move- 
ments, and would belong to her just as well if she did not 
dance at all. 

But be the case as it may with a young girl, who ever saw 
anything graceful and dignified in the dancing of men ? To 
us, the whole thing of a man's dancing is absurd and ridiculous 
to the last degree. If there were nothing else against it, the 
closely cut dress of our modern man of fashion, fitting his body 
and limbs like the bark of a tree, renders graceful dancing an 
impossibility. There is no poetry in any such exhibition of a 
man, or of any other animal clad as he is. For if the man is 



IN THE BIBLE- 243 

large and beayj, the spectacle calls up the image of an elephant 
whose very footstep shakes the ground. If the man is small 
and frisky, we are constantly reminded of the fitful antics of a 
monkey or baboon. If the performer is tall and slender, who 
knows when his excessive gyrations may bring him down like a 
sapling before the wind. Whatever dancing may be as an 
amusement for women and children, we cannot rank it among 
the manly sports and performances. The actions of man are 
graceful only as they are manly ; and they are manly only as 
they are in keeping with the duties and responsibilities of men. 
On this principle, all the exercises of labor in art and industry 
may be graceful ; the evolutions of the soldier under arms may 
be graceful ; the bearing of gentlemen in all the needful inter- 
course of society may be graceful. But dancing, being a mere 
amusement, in no way related to any of the needful employ- 
ments of life, can be defended on no such ground as that of dig- 
nified, manly exercise ; but must stand as a mere amusement, 
on its own intrinsic propriety, if indeed it has any. Stripped, 
then, as it is, of every element of that kind of beauty which 
springs from utility to the purposes of life, what is there 
left of it, as a mere amusement, to make it decorous in men ? 
Suppose you could behold a company of men alone to them- 
selves, dancing with each other for mere amusement, or dancing 
in public for the edification of others, what would be your im- 
pressions of the scene ? Would you call that a natural and 
manly sport ? No. Your contempt for an exhibition so puerile 
would be in exact proportion to two things : first, the zest with 
which they enjoyed it ; and secondly, the age and standing of 
the men who could be thus amused. Hence, we say, dancing was 
never intended for man ; least of all for our modern cloth-har- 
nessed man. And if our fine gentlemen must dance, they ought 



24:4: TYPES OF FEMALE CHARAJTER 

oat of mere poetic justice, to assume the toga of the ancients ; 
or else, for the sake of this peculiarly feminine amusement into 
which thej have intruded, they ought to borrow a belt and a 
skirt from their lady partners. 

There is no disputing about tastes, according to the ancient 
maxim, and thus we account for the extreme favor in which 
dancing has been held in our modern fashionable world. As to 
the moral bearing of it, history shows that it has ever flourished 
most in two opposite stages of society — in the barbarous state, as 
among all savage tribes, and in a corrupt, degenerate civilization, 
as during the decline of the Eoman empire. It is, however, not 
the only relic of barbarism on the one hand, and of degeneracy 
on the other, which has been adopted as the peculiar favorite 
of our most refined aristocratic circles. The theatre can boast 
the same authority and duelling also — two far worse things 
than dancing, though upheld by that same sort of taste which 
rejoices in the dance. 

But as touching the classic beauty of man's dancing, we are 
very willing to abide by the decision of the old Greeks and Ro- 
mans. Most assuredly, these masters of the fine arts, who have 
filled the world with monuments of classic taste, were compe- 
tent judges of everything that could be deemed essential to 
grace and accomplishment in man or woman. They had their 
dances. But with them it was a performance assigned to wo- 
men and children, or to hired professional characters, trained 
for the purpose. They went to see the dance, just as they went 
to see the circus, or stage plays ; but they never thought of 
dancing themselves ; at least, such as had any self respect, or 
claim to gentility. Who ever heard of Roman ladies, or wives 
and daughters of Grecian heroes, dancing with men ? Who 
ever read of Alexander the Great, or Julius Caesar, or Pompey, 



IN THE BIBLE. 245 

or Demosthenes, dancing like a young girl ? Think of a Ro- 
man senator dancing in public or private for his own or any- 
body's amusement ! Think of these world-conquerors, w^hose 
aspirations from boyhood were all of glory, exhibiting them- 
selves in that capacity to which the young gentlemen of our 
day aspire — the capacity of an exquisite dancer — the brilliant 
achievement of a ball-room renown ! It was only as Roman 
virtue began to decay, under the corrupt sway of the Emperors, 
and effeminate luxury to eat out all manly heroism from the 
hearts and habits of the people, that dancing won its way into 
the higher circles. In the days of Cicero, the sentiment of the 
genteel, fashionable world was that which he expressed ; " No 
man dances unless he is mad or drunk," If dancing was thus 
thought unmanly, when the performers had the long, flowing 
Grecian and Roman dress to redeem it from contempt, how 
much more undignified is it now, when the prim, starchy, tight- 
fitting attire of the gentleman dancer, instead of concealing 
only exposes the muscular machinery by which the perform- 
ance is carried on ! We do not wonder (if the anecdote be 
authentic) that such a man as Daniel Webster, when accosted 
in the saloons at Washington by one of those sprightly young 
gentlemen who think that the earth would not revolve if the 
dance should cease, and imploringly asked if he did not dance, 
should have replied : *' No, sir ; I never believed that I had 
the capacity to learn." We cannot guarantee that Mr. Web- 
ster ever said it, for it is only a newspaper report : we are very 
sure, however, that he ought to have said it, for it is 
in perfect keeping, alike with the good taste and the greatness 
of such a man, that he should never discover that he had any 
capacity to dance. 

Viewed in all its pleas, we can see no defence of our modern, 



24:6 TYPES OF FEMALE CHAKACTEB 

promiscuous dancing, from the charge of being an irrational, 
unscriptural and injurious custom ; and until the world gets 
back to the religious solo dance, or the exclusively female dance, 
of the Bible, we shall remain in the opposition to all dancing ; 
and we would, in fact, be glad to see the whole ceremony ex- 
tirpated from civilized society as an unmeaning and useless 
waste of time^r— the offspring of a barbarous, and the idol of a 
degenerate age. 



X, ABIGAIL, HANNAH, AND MARTHA. 

But gladly leaving these dark pictures of warning and woe, 
let us turn now to three very prominent examples of a different 
order — three admirable women, who lived at different periods, 
but may be fitly associated in the same group. Hannah, Abi- 
gail, and Martha, had not much in common, either as to their 
history or their condition in life ; and yet there was a solid 
basis of character, consisting in energy, earnestness, prudence, 

and sound common sense, which belonged to the three alike, 
and strongly distinguished them. The wise, the amiable, the 

judicious wife of David, the earnest, devout and self-denying 
mother of Samuel, the energetic, hospitable, affectionate sister 
of Lazarus, taken altogether, present us with a rare assemblage 
of the virtues which should adorn a woman. 

We know not whether Solomon drew his pictures from real 
life, or from the records of the ancients. We know not that any 
real personage sat as the original of that unrivalled portraiture 
of womanly excellence, which he has drawn for us in the clos- 
ing chapter of the book of Proverbs. If, however, we might 
select any one out of the hundred women of the Bible, who was 
worthy to sit for such a picture, and who came nearest to the 



IN THE BIBLE. 247 

realization of that splendid impersonation of the perfect lady, 
as a wife and mother, we should select one of these ; we should 
select the wise and amiable Abigail, or the devout and holy 
Hannah. But the probability is, that Solomon, like all other 
great artists, drew his images of beauty, not from any one, but 
from many living forms. And so, if we take the excellences of 
this threefold group, and add them all together — if we take the 
holy Hannah, the wise Abigail, and the industrious Martha, 
and blend their virtues all in one character, combining the 
piety of the mother with the wisdom of the wife and the energy 
of the sister, we may (excusing the anachronism) realize the lean 
ideal of this matchless description. You have doubtless, often 
admired this gem from the sacred cabinet, or, to speak more 
properly, this crown, all radiant with gold and diamonds and 
precious stones, which the royal poet hath wrought for the 
moral and spiritual coronation of woman. We may safely 
affirm, that, after nearly three thousand years of progress and 
improvement, you cannot find in human literature either in its 
poetry or its prose, Burke's celebrated picture of his wife includ- 
ed, a finer and more complete impersonation of all that consti- 
tutes the glory and the true mission of woman in the world, 
than we have in his description of a lady of the olden time. 
As you read it, think of Abigail, Hannah, and Martha, of the 
Bible, as sitting for the picture, and do not fail to commend it 
to the Abigails, Hannahs, and Marthas of our own day. 

" Who can fiad a virtuous woman ? 
For her price is far above rubies. 
The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, 
So that he shall have no need of spoil. 
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. 
She seeketh wool and flax, 
And worketh willingly with her hands. 



24:8 TYPES OF Fi MaLB: CHARACTER 

And she is like the merchant's ships ; 

She bringeth her food from afar. 

She riseth also while it is yet night, 

And giveth meat to her household, 

And a portion to her maidens, 

She considereth a field, and buyeth it ; 

With the fruit of her hands she planteth a Tineyard* 

She girdeth her loins with strength. 

And strengtheneth her arms. 

She perceiveth that her merchandise is good : 

Her candle goeth not out by night. 

She layeth her hands to the spindle. 

And her hands hold the distaif. 

She stretcheth out her hand to the poor ; 

Yea, she reacheth forth her hand to the needy. 

She is not afraid of the snow for her household ; 

For all her household are clothed with scarlet. 

She maketh herself coverings of tapestry ; 

Her clothing is silk and purple. 

Her husband is known in the gates. 

When he sitteth among the elders of the land. 

She maketh fine linen and selleth it ; 

And delivereth girdles unto the merchant. 

Strength and honor are her clothing ; 

And she shall rejoice in time to come. 

She openeth her mouth with wisdom ; 

And in her tongue is the law of kindness. 

She looketh well to the ways of her household, 

And eateth not the bread of idleness. 

Her children arise up and call her blessed : 

Her husband also, and he praiseth her. 

Many daughters have done virtuously. 

But thou excellest them all ! 

Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain ; 

But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. 

Give her of the fruit of her hands. 

And let her own works praise her in the gates." 



IN THE BEBLE. 249 



XI. MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS, AND MARY OF BETHANY. 

Almost all the women of the New Testament are worthy of 
our admiration. "With their characters you are already so 
familiar that we need not dwell upon them long. We can 
know them but to love them, and " name them but to praise.'' 
It would be a pleasing task to set forth the virtues of the pious 
Elizabeth, the aged Anna, the charitable Dorcas, the hospit- 
able Lydia, the warm-hearted Mary Magdalene. But we must 
pass over all these to speak of two others, who are, perhaps 
the most remarkable of the whole New Testament group — 
Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary of Bethany. You are, 
probably, aware that there are five Marys mentioned in the 
New Testament — Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary the mo- 
ther of Mark, in addition to the three already named. But the 
central object of the whole group is the Virgin Mother of our 
Lord. 

The Papists have gone to such an absurd extreme in their 
idolatrous exaltation of the Virgin Mary, that Protestants, 
avoiding their error, are scarcely prepared to appreciate her 
character as the Bible warrants. We must not, however, fall 
into the opposite extreme of withholding our respect and admir- 
ation from the one woman of our race, who was accounted 
worthy to be the medium of the Divine Incarnation, and from 
whom the Son of God derived his human' nature, and, to some 
extent, his human character. No such glory as this belongs to 
any other woman. But, aside from this distinction, there is 
not a female character in all the Bible adorned with nobler 
attributes or lovelier virtues. She wins our affections by her 
humble, unaffected piety ; she wins our sympathies by her un- 

11* 



250 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

wonted trials ; not less than our admiration, by tlie unusual 
glory which heaven conferred upon her. The angel Gabriel 
pronounced her the " highly favored of the Lord, blessed among 
women ;" and, in her own beautiful song of thanksgiving to the 
God of Abraham, she exclaims, by the spirit of prophecy, '^All 
nations shall call me blessed." But though she knew all this, 
and rejoiced in the honor of being the mother of Israel's long- 
predicted Messiah — the virgin mother to whom was committed 
the care of the infancy and childhood of the Immanuel of the 
prophets ; yet, through life, she seemed never elated with 
vanity or ambition, but stands as a model, even to the lowliest 
of women, by that uncomplaining devotion with which she 
identified herself with the humble fortunes of Joseph, and that 
motherly tenderness with which she watched the destiny of 
Jesus. As we follow her, the highly- favored of the Lord, the 
angel-honored woman, through all the shifting scenes of her 
history — the manger at Bethlehem, the offerings of the wise 
men, the interview with Simeon and Anna at the temple, the 
flight into Egypt, the carpenter's shop at Nazareth, the journey 
to the passover, the three days' search for the child at Jerusa- 
lem, the marriage at Cana in Galilee, the press through the 
crowd to speak with him, the attendance at the crucifixion — as 
w^e follow her thus, from the manger to the cross, and see the 
devoted wife, the yearning mother, the true-hearted woman, 
pondering all these things, and bearing all these things, until, 
at last she stands at the cross, supported by her companions in 
tears, and even then, whilst the *' sword is piercing her own 
soul," ministering, as best she can, to the dying sorrows of her 
Son and Lord, by whom she is committed to the protection of 
the beloved disciple — we cannot withhold from her, and we 
would not, if we could, the tribute of our tears It is a relief 



f 



IN THE BIBLE. 251 

and a privilege to join with all generations in calling her bless- 
ed, in admu'lng the character and revering the memory of such 
a woman. We will not, because we are Protestants, consent 
to lose our inheritance in such a character. Such a character 
is the common legacy of her sex, and of all mankind, handed 
down as an incentive to virtue, by being a living exemplification 
of its power. Such examples reconcile us to life, and help to 
prepare us for heaven, by making us feel that celestial grace 
may clothe itself in the frail garments of humanity, and dwell, 
for a season, here on earth as an angel of mercy. 

" Earth has its angels, though their forms are moulded 
But of such clay as fashions aU below, 
Though harps are wanting, and bright pinions folded 
We know them by the love-light on their brow. 

** I have seen angels by the sick one's pillow ; 

Theirs was the soft tone and the soundless tread ; 
When smitten hearts were drooping like the willow. 
They stood between the Uving and the dead. 

*' There have been angels in the gloomy prison, 
In crowded halls, by the lone widow's hearth, 
And where they passed the fallen have uprisen — 
The giddy paused, the mourner's hope had birth. 

** I have seen one whose eloquence, commanding, 
Roused the rich echoes of the human breast ; 
The blandishments of wealth and ease withstanding, 
That hope might reach the suffering and opprest. 

" And by his side there moved a form of beauty, 
Strewing sweet flowers along his path of hfe, 
And looking up with meek and love-blent duty— 
I called her angel, but he called her wife. 



252 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

" 0, many a spirit walks the earth unheeded, 
That when its veil of sadness is laid down, 
Shall soar aloft with pinions unimpeded, 
And wear its glories like a starry crown.'* 

Such was Mary, the mother of Jesus. And such, also, 
though in a different way, was Mary of Bethany, the sister of 
Lazarus, the loving disciple of Jesus. With her, the last but 
not the least, in this long gallery of Scripture portraits, we 
must now bring our remarks to a close. No one could more 
appropriately close the scene. There is a charm in her simple 
story that renders her character peculiarly attractive. After 
all that has been said of the others, if we had to select out of 
all the hundred any one for a daughter, a sister, or a wife, we 
should be most likely to choose the affectionate Mary of .Beth- 
any. 

She it was who chose the good part, sat at Jesus' feet, and 
heard his word. She it was, also, who, a few evenings before 
his death, brought her beautiful alabaster box of sweet per- 
fume, and poured it upon his head as a consecration for the 
tomb. And for this act of deep devotion and unutterable love, 
she received the only eulogium of fame which the Son of God 
ever pronounced ; almost the only personal eulogium which is 
pronounced on man or woman in all the Bible — " Yerily I say 
unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout 
the whole world, this also that she hath done, shall be spoken 
of, for a memorial of her.'^ 

And how truly has that prediction been verified I How won- 
drously, while other great deeds have been forgotten, has that 
little act filled the world with its fame ! Who, for eighteen 
centuries, has not heard the praise, and read the memorial of 
Mary's love I What numbers have been won, and what num- 



m THE BIBLE. 253 

bers more shall yet be won to Jesus, by the beauty of Mary's 
youthful piety ! 

The precious perfume of that alabaster box was soon lost 
upon the evening air of Bethany ; but the perfume of a love 
that could never die, still remains fresh as the story of the 
cross. The hands that poured it out, the eyes that wept, the 
hair that wiped away the falling tears, and the heart that beat 
in grateful, holy love, were all, after a few brief years, laid to 
rest in the silent sepulchre of Bethany : but the name and the 
spirit of Mary still live, immortal on earth and immortal in 
heaven. Beautifully has it been written of her and of her 
undying eulogium : 

" Thou hast thy record in the monarch's hall, 
And on the waters of the far raid sea ; 
And where the mighty mountain shadows fall, 
The Alpine hamlet keeps a thought of thee ; 
Where'er, beneath some oriental tree, 
The Christian traveller rests — where'er the child 
Looks upward from the pious mother's knee 
There art thou known — where'er the book of light 
Bears hope and healing ; there, beyond all blight, 
Is borne thy memory, and all praise above ; 
say, what deed so lifted thy sweet name, 
Mary ! to that pure silent place of fame ? 
One lowly offering of exceeding love." 

Many daughters had done virtuously, but she of Bethany 
excelled them all. No sceptred monarch, no jewelled queen of 
earth, ever won such a commendation, or received such a 
monument as Mary^s — '' Spoken of as a memorial of her." 
The men of this world, in their generation, have delighted to 
hold in proud and perpetual remembrance all those worthies of 



254: TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

past ages, wlio, by their learning, their genius, their sufferings, 
or their swords, have battled most bravely for the rights of 
man, and have left their marks the deepest on the sands of 
time. 

" Patriots have toiled, and in their country's cause 
Bled nobly, and their deeds as they deserve, 
Receive proud recompense." 

In honor of their hallowed dust, and their imperishable 
deeds, a grateful posterity has loved to pile the monumental 
column higher and higher, until it " meets the sun in his com- 
ing, and the last rays of departing day play around its summit.'' 
The very spots that gave them birth, and the hallowed retreats 
where their ashes sleep, have been rendered immortal by their 
presence. Their names have been linked forever with the seas 
and oceans on which they sailed, and with the ancient rocks, 
rivers, and mountains, w^here their deeds of mighty daring were 
done. The muse has touched her lyre with unusual melody, 
and invoked her loftiest inspiration to chant their requiem 
in immortal verse : 

** They fell devoted but undying, 
The very gale their names seemed sighing ; 
The waters murmured of their name, 
The woods were peopled with their fame ; 
The silent pillar, lone and grey, 
Claimed kindred with their sacred clay , 
Their spirits wrapt the dusky mountain, 
Their memory sparkled o'er the fountain. 
The meanest rill, the mi'ghtest river. 
Rolled mingling with their fame forever.** 



IX THE BIBLE. 255 

But here is a richer recompense, a more enduring monument, 
a higher glory. Here, on these sacred pages, is a memorial, 
which will last when woods and waters, pillars and temples, 
rivers, mountains and sparkling fountains, shall all have passed 
away. The good name, and the unsought fame, of Mary of 
Bethany, shall outshine and outlast all the mere heroes and 
heroines of earth, as the sun outshines the stars of night, and 
as the Divine outlasts the human. 



XII. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

Such is a faint outline of the female biography of the Bible. 
Has it no attractions ? No attractions for the young ? No 
attractions for woman ? In what other book can woman find 
so glorious a record of the past ? In what other book can 
she find so blessed a recompense for the future ? To what 
other book does she owe so much for that beauty of character, 
dignity of position, and power of moral influence, which she 
now enjoys in every civilized land ? Well may woman stand 
by the Bible ; for in every age, and in every country, it has 
stood by her. Well may she be the fast friend of the Bible ; 
for the Bible has ever been her best of friends. Well may 
woman rejoice in the success, and share in the glory, of what 
the Bible has done for mankind ; for it is mainly through its 
influence on woman that the Bible has reached the heart of the 
world. It is by making woman what she has been, and what 
she now is, wherever its influence has been felt at all, that the 
Bible has been able to do anything for man, or make any head- 
way in bringing the world to its present advanced condition. 

The softest, sweetest, purest light, which earth was able to 
throw around the sorrowful pathway of the Son of God, as he 



256 TYPES OF FEMALE CHAFwACTER 

toiled for our good, was the light which sympathizing woman 
shed, as she ministered to his wants. It is to the eternal honor 
of woman, that she had nothing to do with the rejection and 
crucifixion of the Son of God. The women of Galilee and the 
daughters of Jerusalem ministered to him and sympathized with 
him to the last. So far as our record goes, no hand or voice 
of woman was ever lifted against the life of Jesus, and, except- 
ing only the damsel who accused Peter, none against his dis- 
ciples. Even the heathen wife of Pilate made an effort to save 
him. In that darkest, bloodiest, tragedy of history, so far as 
we are informed, woman took no part but that of sorrow and 
sympathy, for the sufferer. There is every reason to think 
that if woman could have saved him, Jesus would not have been 
crucified. So, that while she bears the blame of being foremost 
in the first great transgression, she is not chargeable with the 
awful guilt and cruelty of the last. Her sole office at the cruci- 
fixion was to watch and weep, and, so far as she could, miti- 
gate the sorrows of her suffering Saviour. 

And so in return for this sympathy, the most blessed and 
cheering light, which heaven, in its mercy, has ever thrown 
around the suffering pathway of woman, on earth, is the light 
which shines out from the Bible and the cross. Heaven was 
pleased when the daughters of Israel received the Son of God 
to their houses and their hearts ; and, to the daughters of every 
land and generation, heaven has repaid their friendship a 
thousandfold, by that gift of gifts — the Bible. The women of the 
Bible, especially those of the New Testament, in the part they 
enacted in the history of Jesus, are the typical characters of 
their sex for all the ages to come. They stood at the cross, as 
the true representative women of Christianity. It is not to be 
overlooked, that they stood there, bearing all the high social 



11^ THE BIBLE. 257 

relations which have since constituted the peculiar charm and 
glory of Christian woman ; in the character of mother and wife 
and sister and maiden, performing their holy ministries of love in 
that awful scene. The brief reference of the Evangelist to 
them is deeply significant. " Now there stood by the cross of 
Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of 
Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.'^ Where should a mother and 
wife and sister be, if not at such a scene ? And from that day 
to this, when has Christian woman ever failed to be at the 
cross of suffering virtue ! 

Here at the cross we behold the grand inauguration of wo- 
man's true mission and vocation amongst men. Here was she 
called and consecrated of God, as by a new baptism, to that 
companionship with suffering, and to those offices of kindness 
and condescension, which were to make her the ministering an- 
gel of a dying world from that day onward to the end of time. 

Here in the deep, unutterable sympathy of these bleeding but 
still steadfast, loving hearts, at the cross, we discern the prophe- 
tic type of that wonderful combination of character — courage, 
compassion, fortitude and self-sacrificing devotion — which woman 
has ever since been winning for herself on a thousand fields, 
from the days of Anastasia, Monica, and Helena, of the ancient 
church, down to Elizabeth Fry, Dorothea Dix, Lady Colqu- 
houn and Florence Nightingale of our own times. 

And truly, if we needed any demonstration that the Christian- 
ity of this nineteenth century is a vital power in the earth, we 
have it in the fact that woman is still true to that great com- 
mission which w^as given her at the cross : that in the name of 
Jesus, she is willing to sacrifice all, to suffer all, to toil and die 
for the perishing. We have the proof in such a life as that of 
Ann Hasseltine Judson. We have the triumphant vindication 



258 TYPES OF FEMALE CHARACTER 

in such a character as that of Florence Nightingale. And the 
homage which the world — even the infidel world — ^is paying to 
such virtue, is but an unconscious tribute paid to the truth 
of Christianity. For what but that mighty influence of redeem- 
ing love which first attracted the women of Galilee to the cross 
of their suffering Saviour, could have called these young women 
away from their homes of elegant ease and affluence — the one 
to go and die upon an inhospitable heathen coast after years of 
privation and peril, the other to brave all the risks of war and 
pestilence in a foreign land, and to watch day and night at the 
couch of sickness and death. What book but the Bible, and 
what influence but that which went forth from Calvary, ever 
formed a character like this ? If goodness be a test of truth, 
who will dare to say, in the face of such examples, that Christian- 
ity is not the very truth of God ? 

You need not fear to place the Bible in the hands of your 
daughters, just as it is, and in all its parts. For though it treats, 
with unsparing fidelity, of all subjects, and all shades of 
character, the vicious and the vile, as well as the virtuous and 
the good, yet, unlike any other book of genius, it leaves on all 
a hallowed influence. No one was ever corrupted by the plain- 
spoken simplicity of the Bible. 

Like the light of heaven, it is never contaminated by contact 
with impurity. It is as pure when shining on the stagnant 
marsh, as when playing around the tops of the snow-clad moun- 
tains. Beautifully and truly has it been said, that, " the finger 
of inspiration, like the finger of the sunbeam, touches corrup- 
tion, and still remains pure." For, when the Bible speaks on 
themes too delicate for common speech, we are made to feel as 
though we were listening to the voice of God. 

For beauty and sublimity, for taste and genius, for truth and 



IN THE BIBLE. 259 

purity, there is no book of education for our sons and daughters 
in the world, that can take the place of the Bible. It is the 
book which every pious woman seeks to put into the hands of 
her child, as the earliest and best pledge of a mother's love, 
and which, ere long, when she comes to make her last leg- 
acy, she wishes to leave as a holy relic, sacred to a dying 
mother's memorv. Whatever has been the success of the 
Bible on other fields, there is one field where its triumph has 
been complete, so far as it has gone. It has gained the female 
heart. It has won the victory of woman's love. It has linked 
her destiny with its own in the everlasting bonds of mutual 
affection and mutual interest. And the hold, which the Bible 
has to-day throughout Christendom upon the heart of woman, 
is as strong and indissoluble as that which woman herself has 
upon the heart of man. So, that if the infidel sneer were true, 
that the Bible is fit only for women and children, it would be 
none the less true, that it has thereby controlled the destiny of 
the world. For as all men, infidels included, were once children 
born of women, how coald God make a book more fit for man 
than by making it fit for women and children. 

But we must close ; and we know not how to close such a 
theme more appropriately than in the strong hypothetical lan- 
guage of another : ** If Christianity should ever be compelled 
to flee from the mansions of the great and the noble, from the 
academies of philosophy and the halls of legislation, from the 
thrones of power and the throngs of busy men, we should find 
her last retreat around the hearth-stones of Christian homes, 
her last sanctuary in the hearts of the women and children of our 
firesides ; her last altar on earth would be the female heart ; her 
last audience, the children gathered around a mother's knees ; 
her last sacrifice, the secret prayer escaping in silence from 
ter lips, and heard perhaps, on 7 at the throne of God." 



260 BEPEESENTATIVE TO0NQ MEN 



CHAPTER VI. 

REPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Range and Limits of the Theme — The First of Young Men— The First Two Brothers- 
Character of Joseph — The Youth of Moses — Sketch of David and Jonathan — Sketch 
of Samuel and Saul — Saul and Samuel at Endor — Character of Absalom — The Young 
Man as Sovereign— The Young Men of the Captivity — Young Men of the New Tes- 
tament. 

I. RANGE AND LIMITS OF THE THEME, 

In speaking of the Young Men of the Bible as one of its 
attractions, and introducing them to you as the subject of a 
separate chapter, we would not, by any means, wish to incur 
the charge of taking undue liberty with sacred and venerable 
names ; or, of attempting to modernize antiquity beyond what 
is just and reasonable. Some degree of familiarity of this kind 
may do us good, just as it does to be brought into immediate 
contact or communication with the distant parts of the earth. 
We must modernize antiquity, somewhat, in order to appreciate 
it ; even as we translate foreign tongues into our own idiom 
before we can feel their full import. The time is probably not 
distant, when the whistle of the steam-car shall be heard over 
the hallowed hills of Judea, and the electric telegraph will, no 
doubt, soon stretch its wires along the base of Ararat and 
across the plains of Shinar. And so, the more we can be made 
to feel that our antipodes on the other side of the globe are our 



OF THE BIBLE. 261 

fellow-citizens, and the more we can be made to realize that the 
antediluvians on the other side of the flood were our brothers, 
men of like passions with ourselves, the better shall we under- 
stand them, and the better will it be for the world. 

The young men of the Bible ! How rich, how comprehensive, 
how suggestive the theme ! How full of hope to the aged, how 
full of enthusiasm to the young, how fraught with interest to 
all I The majority of men in our day claim to be young men ; 
at any rate, feel themselves to be young ; and this, for all the 
purposes of energetic life, is, in fact, equivalent to being young. 
To picture to ourselves the men of antiquity as young men, is, 
therefore the most effective mode of bringing them home to our 
own experience ; because it is as young men that we have 
most in common with them. It is as if the old world and the 
new stood face to face, and thus shook hands with each other 
on friendly and familiar terms. 

The patriarchs of the Bible, who stand in solemn grandeur, 
like sentinels along the lines of history, or, like mighty mon- 
archs with the crown of centuries upon their heads, were all 
young men once ; as truly young and hopeful as any of us. 
And if we wish them to come down from their hereditary 
heights to converse with us awhile, we must conceive of them 
as young men, like ourselves. Let us endeavor to get the 
impression fully into our minds that the first men in the world 
were young men ; that, before there were any patriarchs or 
venerable names in history, young men stood forth upon the 
stage of life as the fresh materials out of which all the patri- 
archs and ancients of history had to be fashioned. The child, 
it has been said, is father to the man ; in the same sense, the 
young men of the earliest ages have become the founders and 
forefathers of the world. To them belongs, unsought, the high 



262 REPKESENTATIYE YOUNG MEN 

distinction of being the model men of all ages, the original 
fountains of all biography, the forefathers of all history. They 
have become to all generations, what they were to their imme- 
diate successors, the primitive and standing types of humanity, 
the representative ideas after which all other men have been, to 
some extent, moulded into their several shapes and characters 
of greatness. 

The young men of the Bible have been imitated, reproduced, 
and rivalled, a thousand times by their successors ; but they 
have never yet been surpassed by any of them, either in native 
genius, in mighty prowess, in heroic achievement, or, in exalted 
piety. Born amid the glories of a new-created world, cradled 
in the lap of the most ancient civilization of our race, blessed 
with the birthright of the earliest of all human primogeniture, 
and crowned by God himself as kings and priests of this whole 
visible creation, they have ever stood prominent amongst men, 
like Saul among the Benjamites. They have held their supre- 
macy through all the lapse of time ; and no young man of 
their successors has ever been able to snatch from their grasp 
the sceptre of wisdom, power, and glory. 

There have been mighty men of valor and renown in every 
age ; giants have walked the earth more than once, and the 
sons of genius have scaled the mountains in almost every 
ancient and modern land ; more than one young Scipio has 
wrested glory from the hands of an aged Hannibal ; more than 
one Pitt wielded the helm of statesmanship and empire in early 
youth ; many a young man, even in our day, when individual 
power is well-nigh lost in that of the masses, has made his mark 
upon the world, and left his foot-prints deeply imbedded in the 
sands of time. But then it must never be forgotten, that what- 
ever heights of glory, valor, and virtue, these mighty men of 



OF THE BIBLE. ' 263 

modern times have attained, thev have been greatly indebted to 
the examples of greatness set before them in the Bible ; they 
have only followed the patterns of genius which have been 
shown to them in this ancient mount of God. It is fortunate 
for mankind, that, while the earth was yet fresh and fair, — 
youth still in its bloom, the life-blood of enthusiasm beating at 
the full, and the fires of genius undimmed by disease and pre- 
mature decay, — some of the earliest and the largest specimens 
of man should have been caught in the net of history, whilst 
the pen of a ready writer was at hand, to describe and record 
them in a book, for our learning. It is not the least, among the 
many services which the Bible has done for the world, that it 
has transmitted to us these specimens of a primitive, giant 
growth ; relics and memorials of physical, intellectual and 
moral manhood, stereotyped, as it were, or fossilized, for the 
studies of the youth of all generations, like those gigantic 
remains of a pre- Adamite world, which once caught and caged 
within the rocks, have at last been revealed for the contempla- 
tion and the wonder of modern geologists. 

The youni^ men of the Bible, in one sense, would include all 
the men of whom it speaks ; inasmuch as they were all once 
young. But this would give us a theme co-extensive with the 
whole range of Scripture biography, a theme far too wide for 
our present purpose. It is proposed, at present, to take a more 
limited view ; to confine ourselves to the biography of those who 
are described as young men, and who are celebrated for the 
qualities they possessed, or the achievements they wrought, in 
the days of their youth. And even from this number, which is 
also too large to be embraced in a single chapter, we must 
select only tho most remarkable examples. We shall aim to 
present to you those notable personages that stand out in bold 



264 KEPRESENTATIYE YOUNG MEN 

relief on the canvas of inspiration, most strongly marked with 
the several attributes of genius, wisdom, courage, piety, ambi- 
tion or folly ; such as will best serve to set before us a picture 
of the young man in all his moods of mind, in all his shades of 
character, and in all his changes of fortune ; illustrating, at 
one view, his highest ascent on the pathway of glory when vir- 
tuous, and his deepest degradation in the abyss of ruin when 
depraved. For it is thus, by the mingling of the good and 
the bad together, that the Bible would teach us the great, 
double lesson, to be warned from hell by the woes of the one, 
and allured to heaven by the example of the other. But, even 
in this last selection, it will be our privilege and our choice to 
lean strongly to virtue's side. Of the several characters, who 
are now to pass under review, about twenty in all, it will be 
found that the large majority were such as feared God from 
early youth, and made their lives illustrious in virtue, while 
only a few attained the bad preeminence of guilt and folly. It 
is with the young men of the Bible generally, as it was with the 
apostles of Christ, one Judas associated with eleven good men. 
And, whilst many other examples might be mentioned, both 
among the evil and the good, still the twenty, here selected, 
seem to stand out so prominently above their fellows, as to 
justify our designation of them as the Eepresentative Young 
Men of the Bible. 

II. THE FIRST OF YOUNG MEN. 

And who shall head the list ? Shall any one stand before 
him, who, fresh as a morning in Paradise, stood forth in all the 
beauty and manly vigor of a life just begun, at once the noblest 
work and brightest image of Jehovah ? It is manifest, that no 



OF THE BIBLE. 265 

ennmeration of the young men of the Bible would be complete 
without Adam, the first of men. His was the first young breath ; 
the first throbbing pulse, of an almost infinite series. He was 
the earliest link of life in a chain, which is still unbroken, and 
is ever stretching onwards. He was a young man in a double 
sense : first, young as to time, compared with what he was 
when he died : and, secondly, young in nature, because created 
immortal, in a state absolutely free from any principle of decay, 
disease, or death. At his creation he was young in years ; and, 
by nature, he was young in immortality, even as an angel is 
always young ; and, but for sin, he would never have grown 
old. Even after the temptation and fall, he must be regarded 
as a young man for at least fifty or a hundred years. For, 
when men lived almost a thousand years, this would be a shorter 
allowance for youth and early manhood than twenty or even 
ten vears now. But it is recorded of Adam, that he lived nine 
hundred and thirty years : and this alone, if there were nothing 
else, would be sufficient to show that it was not as an old man, 
nor indeed as a man of middle age, but as a young man, Adam 
came forth from the hand of his Creator — young and fresh as 
the green trees of Paradise, young and radiant as the roses that 
bloomed along its banks, young and joyous as the birds that 
warbled amid its bowers, young and beautiful as the new-creat- 
ed light of the morning, young and vigorous as the rising sun, 
when he " cometh out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong 
man to run a race." 

It is as a young man only, that our present theme calls us to 
speak of Adam. But it is chiefly as a yoilng man, you will ob- 
serve, that the Bible speaks of him. It tells us nothing about 
the deeds of his life\s meridian, or the events of the long cen- 
turies of his declining old age. Aside from the single verse 

12 



266 EEPRESENTATIVE YOrNG MEN 

that writes his epitaph, the shadow of an impenetrable oblivion 
hangs over the last and larger portion of his years. In fact, 
all we know of Adam belongs to what may be called the season 
of his youth. All the great things which he did or suffered, 
by which he left his mark upon mankind, and all the grand 
events, which the providence of God accomplished by him, took 
place while he was yet a young man. His communion, face to 
face, with God ; his investiture with dominion over all the visi- 
ble creation : his probation as the federal head and representa- 
tive of our race ; his union in marriage with a help-meet, who, 
by sharing his nature, was worthy to share his joy^ and destined 
to share his woes ; his transgression and fall with her ; his con- 
demnation and expulsion from Eden ; his forfeiture of the Divino 
favor, and of life for himself and all his posterity — these con- 
stituted the great events of the life of Adam, and all these 
must have occurred before he had ceased to be a young man. 
To the same period, indeed, must be referred the birth and ed- 
ucation of his two eldest sons. 

And what a contrast of extremes did his life exhibit ! As 
the first sovereign, the first husband, the first father, the first 
sinning and sorrowing man, how speedily did he pass through 
all those scenes of trial, those alternations of bliss and woe, 
hope and despair, glory and shame, which made the life of the 
first young man forever memorable as a picture and prophecy 
of the whole world ! The history of nearly six thousand years 
has been but a vindication of his title as our federal head and 
representative. No claim en earth was ever attested by a 
fuller record or stronger array of facts. 

Before he sinned he stood upon an eminence of light, of wisdom, 
knowledge, glory, purity, and blessedness, which no one of his 
successors has ever reached save he who was the second Adam. 



OF THE BIBLE. 267 

The genius of Haydn, in the grand oratorio of the Creation, 
has soared on its sublimest pinions, when celebrating the glory 
of his person, the excellence of his character, and the felicity of 
his original estate. 

" In native worth and honor clad, 
With beauty, courage, strength adorned, 
Erect with front serene he stands, 
A man, the lord and king of nature all. 
His large and arched brow sublime, 
Of wisdom deep declares the seat, 
And in his eyes with brightness shines, 
The soul, the breath and image of his God. 
With fondness leans upon his breast. 
The partner for him formed, 
A woman fair and graceful spouse ; 
Her softly smiling virgin looks. 
Of flowery spring the mirror. 
Bespeak him love and joy and bliss." 

But there was a change. Oh, how rapid and mournful the 
change ! By one act he stooped from glory to disgrace, from 
the heights of immaculate purity and Divine companionship, to 
the depths of corruption, desolation, and death. It was a trans- 
ition not merely from life, but from immortality to death. By 
one act of disloyalty and treason against the Author of his 
being, his spiritual and immortal beauty was forever marred, his 
physical strength decayed, his honor in the dust. The silver 
cord of youth was loosed, the golden bowl of glory broken, the 
pitcher with all its nectar ed waters of life crushed at the foun- 
tain, and the wheel that should have drawn endless supplies from 
the wells of immortality, shattered into fragments at the cistern. 

In this first apostasy, we behold an illustration, as lasting as 



268 KEPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

our race, of the fearful turpitude of sin. In the awful conse- 
quences which have flowed and are still flowing, wide as the 
world and ceaseless as the course of time, from that first sin of 
the first of young men, God has taught the world, as though 
the buried dead of sixty centuries lifted up their solemn voices 
from the dust, crying, " the way of the transgressor is hard.'' 
For if the earth, as we see it now, with all its generations of 
the living and the dead, is still bearing the curse and paying 
the penalty of that first transgression, what shall the end be 
of those who are still living in sin sixty centuries nearer to the 
day of final reckoning ? Ah ! there is a voice in the example 
of this first of men, which will go down to the last of his pos- 
terity as fresh and earnest as it comes to us to-day, saying, Take 
heed, the wages of sin is death. 



III. THE FIRST TWO BROTHERS. 

Passing from Adam to his sons, we may dwell, for a moment, 
on the two brothers, Cain and Abel, as prominent characters 
among the young men of the Bible. In that fearfully skeptical 
production of Byron, called the *' Mystery of Cain," in which he 
makes Cain study theology under the instructions of the devil, 
and utter almost every kind of blasphemy against his Maker, 
the two brothers are represented as married men at the time of 
AbePs death. Byron, though a gifted poet, was but a sorry 
theologian ; and it is to be hoped that no young man, however 
fascinated by his genius, will ever take him as an authority for 
his faith, or as an example for imitation in matters of religion. 
Still, in this case, there is nothing in the sacred narrative to con- 
tradict his representation of the brothers as married men. The 



OF THE BIBLE. 269 

probability is, that, by an ordinance of marriage made expressly 
for Adam's family, the sisters of these two brothers had become 
their wives, and, it may be, the mothers of their children, prior to 
the dreadful tragedy narrated in the fourth chapter of Genesis. 
And if so, though the Bible is silent on the subject, this double rela- 
tionship would seem to give a deeper interest to the recital, and cast 
a darker gloom over the scene of the first murder and fratricide. 

Be this, however, as it may, it is manifest, from the very face 
of the narrative, that the two brothers were then young men, 
and of about the same age, possibly twin brothers. They 
would be comparatively young for that generation, even at the 
birth of their younger brother, Seth, one hundred and twenty 
years after the Creation ; for a century, could have abated 
nothing from the vigor of an existence whose natural limit was 
a millennium. But we know that the death of Abel had 
already occurred before the birth of Seth, probably some con- 
siderable time before. 

Contemplate for a moment, then, the case of these first brothers 
of our race, whose tragic story, short as it is, possesses for us a far 
deeper interest and significance than that of the celebrated but 
somewhat fabled Eomulus and Remus, to which the greatest em- 
pire of the ancient world traced its origin. Children together, 
the first that ever felt the caresses of parental love ; companions 
for each other in all sports and pastimes of boyhood from early 
dawn to even-tide ; the sharers of each other's budding thoughts, 
the partners in each other's youthful joys, the keepers of each 
other's ripening counsels, and, as yet, the joint and only heirs 
apparent to all the world ; young men, each in his occupation 
blest, the one a shepherd of the flocks with all their living 
wealth, the other a tiller of the ground with all its teeming pro* 
duce ; young men, girded with strength and power, with bodily 



270 REPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

frames that might endure a thousand years, with knowledge 
such as Adam and Eve, who had talked face to face with God, 
could teach them, with intellects only one remove from the in- 
spiration of the Almighty, with enthusiasm fed on all that was 
sublime and beautiful in the blue heavens overhead and the 
green earth at their feet — thus blest and thus endowed, these 
two brothers ought to have lived to love each other, to bless 
the world, and to glorify God. 

And but for sin, they would have done so. Alas, what bitter 
fruits did the tree of transgression bear in the first family of a 
fallen race ! apples of Sodom, where lately bloomed the tree of 
life, and grapes of Gomorrah, where might have flourished the 
choice vine of Eschol ! The one was righteous, the other 
wicked. The one was a believer in the promise, and a devout 
worshiper at the altar of Jehovah ; The other was skeptical, 
rebellious and ungodly. The first disagreement in the world, 
the first strife, the first death, originated in a difibrence of reli- 
gion. And from that day to this, the deepest, widest distinction 
amongst men, whether as individuals or nations, has been that 
which has marked them as religious or irreligious. There is no 
interest on earth so important as religion ; and there is no dis- 
tinction of human character so radical and enduring as that 
which is founded in religion. ** By faith," says the Bible, " Abel 
offered unto God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain." la 
the one, faith wrought good works, secured the favor of God, 
and ended early in the bliss of heaven. In the other, unbelief 
and irreligion produced envy, envy brought forth hatred, and 
hatred soon ended in the guilt of murder. In Cain we look 
upon the downward career of a young man, portrayed as in a 
drama of three acts : first, the rebellious sinner against God, 
then the despiser of his brother^s virtue, and at last the shed 



OF THE BIBLE. 271 

der of his brother's blood. Because his own works were evil 
and his brother's righteous, he hated him, and hated the God 
whom he served ; and with nothing to restrain these vindic- 
tive and malignant passions, be soon fell, as many a young man 
has since fallen, never to rise again ; to go down, with the stain 
of blood on his hands, the brand of infamy on his brow, and the 
scowl of despair upon his soul, a perpetual proverb and warning 
to posterity. 

But in the brief and beautiful career of righteous Abel, we 
contemplate the young man on another scale ; the first of true 
believers, the first of accepted worshipers, and first on the roll 
Df the noble army of martyrs. He was the first to die on earth ; 
and he died on account of his superior faith and virtue. He 
fell a victim and a sacrifice at the altar of his religion. It is 
a significant fact, that the first death on earth was a death of 
martyrdom for the profession of religion. But by that early 
death, and by his young and lovely life, he yet speaketh. By 
his example the world was first taught the grand moral lesson, 
that death may be more glorious and blessed than life, that it 
is better to die for virtue than to live in sin. ^^ The living strive, 
the dead alone are glorious :" and a dead Abel, speaking from 
the dust, is more sublime than a living Cain, wandering from 
the haunts of men, and bearing the curse of God. If he w^as 
the first to taste death on earth, thus prematurely cut off by 
the rude hand of violence, he also had the peculiar honor of 
being the first inhabitant of earth that ever tasted the life and 
bliss of heaven. And, doubtless, all the faithful and good 
among the descendants of Adam down to the floood, while they 
deplored his youthful doom, rejoiced in that entrance, which, 
through faith and through death, he had gained to a better 
paradise than that which had been lost on earth. Well might 



272 REPEESENTATIYE YOUNG MEN ] 

they commemorate his death, and gather round his tomb to I 

sing his hopeful requiem. ! 

" The dead, ] 
The only beautiful who die no more, 

The only blest : the dwellers on the shore i 

Of spring fulfilled. The dead ! whom call we so ? j 

They that breathe purer air, that feel, that know I 

Things wrapt from us." i 



IV. — CHARACTER OF JOSEPH. 

But we must pass on ; and, at a single bound, we now cross 
a long interval of time, from the antediluvian to the postdilu- 
vian world. Much might be said of the youth of Isaac and Ish- 
mael, of Esau and Jacob ; but there are other characters more 
prominent as young men. Next after Abel on the list of those, 
who, as young men, have figured largely in Bible history, and 
left the impress of their character on mankind, must be ranked 
Joseph in Egypt. 

His character indeed is one of the noblest in history, as his 
life was one of the most eventful. Of merely human characters, 
his life presents us with perhaps the most admirable and perfect 
picture which can be found in all the Old Testament biography. 
In him we behold the nearest approximation to the New Testa- 
ment characters ; the gentle, affectionate spirit of the beloved 
disciple seems to shine forth in a young man of extraordinary firm- 
ness and decision during a career of unusual trials and hardships. 
In all the wonderful vicissitudes and fortunes which marked his 
early career, as the favorite son, the artless dreamer, the envied 
brother, the sold captive and exile, the falsely accused and im- 



OF THE BIBLE. 273 

prisoned servant, the inspired interpreter, the honored states- 
man and ruler of all the land of Egypt, we behold the same 
young man of unsullied honor, unimpeachable purity, noble, 
generous affections, and steadfast devotion to the God of his 
fathers. 

We look upon his life as one of the most signal and beautiful 
illustrations which the Bible furnishes of the doctrine of a spe- 
cial providence, ever educing good out of evil, and over-ruling 
the wickedness of men for the accomplishment of its grand de- 
signs. His whole history is doubtless recorded in Scripture, in 
its opening book, for the purpose of inculcating most impres- 
sively the great truth, that there is a God who governs in the 
affairs of men ; that He, who created the world, as recorded in its 
first chapter, and who governs it, as evinced by the account of 
the deluge and the destruction of Sodom, also guides, with un- 
erring skill, the minutest details of human life ; so that promo- 
tion cometh not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the 
south, but God is the judge ; he putteth down one and setteth 
up another. 

** There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough hew them how we will." 

As we read this early and charming biographical story, we 
seem to follow a mountain stream, clear and sparkling as it 
issues from the fountain-head, but meeting soon with many ob- 
structions amid the rocks, falling over many rough and fearful 
precipices, sometimes almost lost from view in deep, dark glens 
and tangled forests, then emerging to the sunlight, and then 
disappearing again ; so that no one, for a while, can tell what 
direction it will take to the sea, or where it shall empty, or how 
it shall find egress at all from the hills and mountains that en- 

12* 



274: KEPRESENTATIYE YOUNG MEN 

viron it ; until, at last, escaping at a point and through a 
channel that we least thought of, with every barrier passed, with 
every obstacle overcome, and as if fresh with strength gathered 
from all that had impeded its progress, it rolls away across the 
plains of half a continent,. in one deep, onward, ever-widening, 
and irresistible current, to its home in the world of waters. 
Such was the current of Joseph^s life, from the home of his 
childhood in the mountains of Canaan, down to the day in 
which, as a revealer of the future, and a prophet of the Most 
High, he was proclaimed prime minister in the court of 
Pharaoh, and second ruler of the kingdom of Egypt. The 
Scripture narrative, extending through thirteen chapters, is a 
succession of the most graphic and thrilling scenes, sometimes 
possessing the tragic interest of a drama, sometimes rising to 
the third heaven of sublimity in their delineation of true moral 
heroism, often surpassing in wonder the strangest creations of 
fiction and romance, and always fraught with the most touch- 
ing pathos that religion, poetry, and human sympathy can in- 
spire. We feel, while reading it, that there is but one thing 
on earth so beautiful as truth, and that is virtue. 

See him, first, at the age of seventeen, doomed to death by 
his unnatural brothers, and, as-it were, buried alive in a deep 
pit of the wilderness. What a picture of youthful innocence 
and virtue suffering wrongfully is that ! What must have been 
the anguish of his soul as he struggled and begged for life, and 
then cried for help to the God of his father, there beneath the 
ground ! And why is he there ? He, the young and tender 
brother, is thrust down, and left to perish in darkness with 
starvation, w^hilst they, the mature, athletic men, sit down quiet- 
ly to enjoy their daily repast, surrounded by their flocks and 
herds, and green pastures, and the pleasant light of the sun. It 



OF THE BIBLE. 275 

was probably the first time in the history of the world, and it 
ought to have been the last, that a child was so treated by 
men, his brothers. 

And what has he done to merit such a doom ? By the 
manly beauty of his person, and the loveliness of his child- 
like virtues, he has won too large a share in the affections of 
the venerable patriarch, their father ; and for that they envy 
him. In the honest integrity and fidelity of his young heart, 
he has brought to the patriarch a report of their misdeeds ; 
and for that they hate him. In the open-hearted candor and 
simplicity of his unsuspecting boyhood, he has communicated to 
them all his wonderful dreams ; and for that they conspire 
against his life. At the command of his father, he has come 
away from home on a mission of filial and fraternal love, to see 
if it is well with his brothers and their flocks ; and now they 
seize the opportunity to kill him, and see what will become of 
his dreams. And but for Reuben, death would have closed the 
scene at once. At his suggestion, deterred from staining their 
hands with a broth er^s blood, they put him in a pit to die — 
all, except Eeuben who had better thoughts, consenting in their 
hearts to the deed, and satisfied, that, whatever may become 
of him, they have at least defeated his dreams. 

And now the scene changes. God, who has great and won- 
derful ends to accomplish on earth by this earth-imprisoned 
child, in his providence, has sent along a caravan of Ara-bian 
merchantmen, on their way to Egypt, who arrive at the spot 
just in time to save him, either from death in the cave or from 
that deliverance which the eldest brother was meditating. 
Eeuben, with his good intentions, is now away ; and Judah, 
partly relenting with natural pity for a brother of his own flesh, 
and partly urged by a conscience which could not feel quite 



276 KEPEESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

guiltless of blood, though noue had been shed, proposes to take 
him out and sell him. And thus, because it was. no profit to 
slaj their brother and conceal his blood, avarice takes the place 
which had been occupied by malice and murder ; and so, com- 
promising the matter between their conscience and their crime, 
as far as they could, they conclude to sell him as a slave for 
twenty pieces of silver, little dreaming that all these sinful 
efforts to defeat the dreams of the boy, and thwart the pur- 
poses of heaven, would be the very means of fulfilling them. 

Again the scene changes ; from the hill country of Canaan, 
to the distant land of Egypt ; from a shepherd's tent and a 
solitary cavern, to a crowded city, and capital, and court, of 
the greatest kingdom of the times. A captive and an exile, 
this seed of Abraham, this great-grandson of the ^^ Friend of 
God," is carried down into Egypt and again sold as a servant 
to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard. 
But, by the special blessing of heaven and his own good con- 
duct, he soon finds favor in the eyes of his new master. He is 
promoted to be overseer of all his house. The sacred narrative 
tells us, in this connection, that Joseph was, '* a goodly person 
and well favored.^' Youth has now put on the strength of man- 
hood. The tender, beautiful boy, whom a fond father once 
loved too well, and whose loss he can never forget, has now rip- 
ened into a full grown, active, noble young man. The servant 
has become the trusted and honored ruler of all his owners 
household. And, after some eight or ten weary years of cap- 
tivity and exile. Divine Providence seems now, at last, about to 
make compensation to Joseph for all the hardships he had suf- 
fered ; when, suddenly, the scene changes again. 

In a moment all seems to be lost — forever lost. All his bright 
prospects are blasted. His good name is cast out as evil, his 



OF THE BIBLE. 277 

reputation gone. The rising sun of his good fortune in Egypt 
is suddenly and disastrously eclipsed. He is a slave, he is a 
prisoner, he is now treated as a criminal, he is imraured in a 
dungeon ; it may be for life or it may be for an early death. 
It was in fact, for more than two years. And why is he there ? 
He is there through the vengeance of a woman — one whose 
base wickedness had been baffled, disappointed, and put to 
shame, by his own inflexible virtue. He is there falsely ac- 
cused of the very crime which he had manfully and heroically 
resisted from first to last. He is there to satisfy the wrath of 
Potiphar's wife, who, to treachery, and falsehood, and slander, 
and the infamous sin which she wished him to commit, added 
the cruelty and injustice of suffering an innocent man to lan- 
guish for years in the state prison of Egypt on her account. 
We can find bloodier women in Scripture, but it would be hard 
to find a meaner one than this. 

But in Joseph, at the point to which wq have now traced 
him, we behold the young man in his most illustrious character 
— that of conqueror, that of self-conqueror. We behold him as 
a sufferer ; but the character of a true moral hero shines out 
through all his sufferings, hke the sun between the clouds in a 
day of rain. He had illustrated the proverb before it was writ- 
ten, " He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a 
city." His virtue had been assailed from day to day by all that 
was fascinating in the siren song of sensuality, and by all 
that was powerful and seductive in the persevering energy of 
an unprincipled woman. But, strong in the fear of God, and 
in the conscious purity of his own heart and life, he repelled 
the tempter with the simple and sublime declaration, '^ How 
can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God ?" He 
might have yielded to the tempter, as too many have done, plead- 



278 EEPKESENTATIYE YOUNG MEN 

ing necessity and the force of circumstances. He might have 
concealed the sin, saying, in his heart, there is no human eye 
to penetrate the darkness and discover the crime, and, there- 
fore, no great harm can result from it. But it was enough for him, 
that it was a violation of the ordinance of God ;* enough for 
him, that there was an all-seeing eye in heaven, in whose sight 
the darkness shineth as the light. He stood upon that rock 
of truth, '' Thou God seest me," upon which, if a young man 
stand, he shall be unmoved amid all the blandishments of 
sensuality, and all the machinations of the devil. 

It was a sublime moral triumph of reason over appetite, a 
conquest of piety over passion, a victory of virtue over vice. 
We see the young Hebrew, under the most trying circumstan- 
ces, holding fast the faith of Abraham, successfully vanquish- 
ing the greatest temptation of youth, and becoming a model to 
the young men of all subsequent ages. And what though, in 
his prison-house, the world may think him fallen ? He has 
fallen, only as the martyr of truth and virtue falls, to rise again. 

" Truth crushed to earth shall rise again, 
The eternal years of God are hers." 

Several years now roll away, when the scene changes more 
strangely than ever before. The young Hebrew has found 
friends, and has enjoyed the blessing of God during all the 
years of his imprisonment. But now he is brought out from 
his prison-house, called in haste by a mandate from the throne. 
At the age of thirty years he stands before Pharaoh. Know- 
ing the purpose for which he was summoned there, we can very 
easily imagine the keen eye of scrutiny with which he is received 
by the monarch, and the look of proud contempt and incredu- 
lity with which he is regarded by all the hoary- headed magi- 



OF THE BIBLE. 279 

cians and philosophers of Egypt. We can well imagine, too, 
that, though a stranger and a prisoner, he stands there self- 
possessed and unintimidated ; because we know he stands not 
only in the confidence of an innocent man, but in the strength 
of a wisdom derived from heaven. It is a glorious and trium- 
phant position which he now occupies — that of superior know- 
ledge, that of instructor to the king. It is, perhaps the ear- 
liest signal illustration, which history gives us, of our modern 
maxim " Knowledge is power." It was certainly on this occa- 
sion the greatest power in Egypt. - A poor unknown prisoner 
comes into that august presence of king and counsellors to re- 
veal the future ; by the interpretation of a dream to make 
known the decrees of heaven ; and, by his supernatural wisdom 
alone, he goes out an acknowledged prophet of the Most High, 
publicly declared to be a saviour and a ruler of all the land of 
Egypt. 

Can the annals of history or romance afford a more remark- 
able example of sudden exaltation and triumph than this ? 
Out of the Bible it would be difficult to find a scene on record 
combining more of the elements of moral beauty and sublimity, 
than this appearance of Joseph before Pharaoh. How has 
God himself here vindicated the cause of suffering, down-trod- 
den virtue, in the person of his young servant ! Yesterday, in 
all the land of Egypt, outside of the prison walls, there was 
none so poor as to do him reverence. To-day, a grateful nation 
at the bidding of their king, are ready to bow the knee be- 
fore him. To-day he hears, and all Egypt hears, this new and 
marvellous decree from the throne : " Forasmuch as God hath 
showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou 
art : Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy 
word shall my people be ruled ; only in the throne will I be 



280 BEPKESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

greater than thou. See, I have set thee over all the land of 
Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put 
it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine lin- 
en, and put a gold chain about his neck ; and he made him to 
ride in the second chariot which he had : and they cried before 
him, Bow the knee : and he made him ruler over all the land 
of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and 
without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the 
land of Egypt." 

Beautifully has the Psalmist celebrated this exaltation of 
the seed of Jacob : 

" The king sent and loosed him ; 
Even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. 
He made him lord of his house, 
And ruler of all his substance, 
To bind his princes at his pleasure, 
And teach his senators wisdom." 

We need not follow him farther, though his subsequent his- 
tory is full of interesting and affecting scenes. Seven or 
eight years later, when the famine set in, we should find him 
holding strange interviews with those brethren w^ho had sold 
him into bondage, and realizing to the full the prophetic 
dreams of his childhood. And still farther on, when near the 
age of forty, and a father then himself, w^e should see him 
meeting and embracing the venerable patriarch, who had so 
long mourned over the supposed tragic fate of his favorite 
son, and whose aged heart had fainted for joy when he 
heard the news from Egypt, but revived when he saw the 
proofs of it, saying, it is enough ; Joseph is yet alive, and I will 
go and see him before I die." Seventeen years later still, we 



OF THE BIBLE. 281 

should behold him. with his children aad his brethren, receiving 
the dying benedict'ons of the patriarch, and then going up 
into Canaan to lay his mortal remains in the cave Machpelah, 
the burial-place of Abraham. And, last of all, we should see 
his great and unceasing kindness to his brethren, and hear his 
own dying prophecy and request for burial in the land of his 
fathers. 

But it is enough for us to have traced his career as a young 
man. The glory of his youthful character was the decision 
with which he adhered, through all temptation, to the religion 
of Jehovah. For twenty years he stood alone in the dark re- 
gions of idolatry, the faithful worshiper of the God of Abraham. 
In the prison and in the palace alike, in his boyhood and in his 
manly prime, in his private chamber, where no human eye 
could see him, and under the full gaze of Egypt's royal court 
and people, he remained firm in his integrity and true to the 
faith of his fathers. He stood alone in Egypt, not unlike Mil- 
ton's seraph, Abdiel, among the apostate angels : 

"Faithful found 
Among the faithless, faithful only he ; 
Among innumerable falsfe unmoved, 
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, 
His love he kept, his loyalty, his zeal : 
Nor number nor example with him wrought 
To swerve from truth or change his constant mind, 
Though single." 



282 KEPBESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 



V. ^THE YOUTH OF MOSES. 

Next on the roll of illustrious young men, whose virtues and 
achievements adorn the biographical annals of the Bible, we 
take the example of Moses. His life, of a hundred and twenty 
years, is naturally divided into three great periods of equal 
length. The first forty years may be called the period of his 
youth, all being spent in Egypt ; the next forty years, passed 
in Midian, made up the period of middle age ; and the third 
forty, in the wilderness, we may name the period of his old age. 
Strictly speaking, however, he had no old age in the ordinary 
sense ; for when he died, at one hundred and twenty, his eye 
was not dim, nor his natural force abated. 

If we should comprehend, under our present view, the whole 
life of Moses, and measure it by the extent of its influence upon 
mankind, we could find no superior in the annals of time, and, 
perhaps, but one equal — that of the apostle Paul. As an 
author, he is not only the earliest of historians, but by far the 
most voluminous of the sacred writers. As an inspired prophet, 
his communications with God were more direct and wonderful, 
than those of any other prophet mentioned in the Bible. As a 
sacred bard, his song of triumph at the Red Sea, his farewell 
address to Israel, and his Psalm, the ninetieth, give him a rank 
amongst the most gifted poetic geniuses that have adorned the 
walks of sacred literature. As a law-giver and the founder 
of an empire, whether we consider the nature or the duration 
of the institutions he established, he stands above Solon or 
Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius or Augustus, Mohammed or Confu- 
cius, Alfred the Great or Napoleon. Though the sceptre of 
empire has long since crumbled in the dust, his laws and insti* 



OF THE BIBLE. 283 

tutions still live all over Christendom — the oldest and most in- 
destructible in the world. As a military chief and ruler of 
men, his forty years^ march through the wilderness, at the head 
of some two or three millions of people, displays more execu- 
tive talent, generalship, and daring, than all the campaigns of 
Juhus Caesar, or the expeditions of Alexander the Great, or 
the celebrated retreat of the ten thousand under Xenophon, so 
beautifully told in the Anabasis. Indeed, for the awful gran- 
deur of his character as an inspired teacher, for the duration of 
his institutions, for the versatility of his genius, for the extent 
of his achievements while living, and the influence he exerted 
on the world when dead, Moses has no compeer in history, 
and none in the Bible, except the Great Apostle of the gentiles. 

But it is not of the deeds of his meridian life, nor of the won- 
derful events of his advanced age, that we are now to speak. 
It is in his character and accomplisments as a young man only, 
that we are now to contemplate him. It was by the discipline 
of his youth, that heaven prepared him for his subsequent career 
of glory. No human life ever had three great periods more 
distinctly marked, and more unlike each other, than his. But 
we should fail to learn one of its greatest lessons, if we did not 
perceive, how the first period schooled him for the second, and 
how the second equipped him for the third. The child is to 
the man what the man is to the immortal. And the Moses of 
four-score or of six-score years would not have been what he was 
to Israel and to the world, had the Moses of twenty and 
thirty years been a different young man from what we find 
him. 

We pass over all those peculiar circumstances, that attended 
the infancy of this beautiful child of the ark and the waters, to 
fix our attention upon three prominent facts, gathered from the 



284 REPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

sacred narrative, which determined the character of Moses, and 
stamped the seal of immortality upon his youth. 

The first is, that while educated by his own pious Hebrew 
mother in the faith of his fathers, he was also educated in the 
court of Pharaoh, being adopted by the king's daughter as her 
son ; and, as such, there was before him every prospect of 
power and glory which the monarchy of Egypt could hold out to 
the aspirations of a young man. The Scriptures speak of him 
as having the treasures and the pleasures of Egypt at his com- 
mand. The inference is almost inevitable, that he was, or 
would become, heir apparent to the throne. Be that, however, 
as it may, all Egypt was before him, even if the throne was 
not ; the memorable example of Joseph's exaltation, power, and 
glory was before him ; and as the adopted son of Pharaoh's 
daughter, it is natural to believe, that he had enjoyed greater 
advantages for a career of honor and usefulness than any young 
man of his day. 

The second fact is, that he had diligently improved these ad- 
vantages. We are told, that he was ^' learned in all the wis- 
dom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.'' 

His education had been most complete and thorough. A 
perfect master of the language and learning, both of the 
Egyptians and Hebrews, he was at once, by his double know- 
ledge, equal to two ordinary men. For it may be laid down as 
a general rule, which has always held good, that a young man 
re-duplicates his power and influence with each new language 
and literature that he masters. In the full possession of all 
that influence which springs from social rank, and conscious of 
all that power which comes from a mind full of knowledge, 
Moses, it seems, had already distinguished himself as a young 
man by his mighty deeds, and had formed the purpose of 



OF THE BIBLE. 285 

achieving some great work of deliverance for his countrymen 
as a prince and a judge over them. 

But the third fact which distingushed and immortalized 
Moses, even while a young man, was his remarkable self-denial, 
his noble choice, his triumph of faith over ambition and worldly 
glory. With all his stores of wisdom and all his bright 
visions of worldly grandeur, he voluntarily resigned and 
renounced his position in the court, and, as Josephus tell us, 
his oflQce as chief of the armies ,of Egypt, and took his portion 
for time and eternity with the afflicted people of God. This is 
the one act of heroic faith and patriotic self-sacrifice, which 
the sacred writers have delighted to celebrate as the most illus- 
trious act of his life. And this was the act of his youth — 
faith's early choice, faith's manly triumph. It takes genius to 
appreciate genius ; and faith alone can understand and appre- 
ciate faith. So we find the greatest of apostles, doubtless 
moved by the appreciating sympathy of a like faith and a like 
character, celebrating this act of the greatest of prophets in the 
following terms : ''By faith Moses, when he was come to years, 
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter ; choosing 
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy 
the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming the reproach of 
Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt f for he had 
respect unto the recompense of reward. By faith he forsook 
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king : for he endured as 
seeing him who is invisible." 

This sublime triumph of the unseen and eternal over all that 
was seen and temporal, was the turning point of his destiny, the 
decisive and irreversible passing of the Rubicon ; but a passage 
altogether different, in its nature and results, from that which 
sealed the destiny of Caesar. Moses gave up all for conscience's 



286 REPRESENTATIVE TOTJNG MEN 

sake, wealth, power, pleasure and fame ; but, by the sacrifice, 
he won all — immortality on earth and glory in the heavens. 
Had he staid in Egypt, and become its monarch, mankind 
would probably have known and cared as little about him as 
they now know or care about the Pharaohs. 

We have seen men, like Napoleon, after braving the sum- 
mer's heat and winter's cold, after scaling Alps and Apennines, 
after wading through seas of blood to grasp the crown of 
empire, at last losing all and dying in exile. We have seen 
others, like Charles V., or the late emperor of Austria, unre- 
compensed by all their wealth and royalty, and wearied out 
with the cares of state, in their old age abdicating a throne 
which they could no longer fill with credit or comfort, and 
resigning the sceptre to their feeble and unworthy sons. But, 
in all the annals of the world's great men, we have found no 
young man, like Moses, endowed with genius, rich in learning, 
and conscious of ability, voluntarily relinquishing such a crown, 
as that which lay within his reach, for such a recompense as 
that he chose ; and all at the period of life when hope and en- 
thusiasm were beating at the full. We have found many simi- 
lar examples, ever since the days of Paul, in the annals of the 
Christian church, in the ranks of its ministry and its mission- 
aries, ancieitt and modern ; but they have all been men imbued 
with the same spirit and faith that governed Moses. By this 
faith and spirit of self-sacrifice for conscience' sake, he stood 
upon a height of moral heroism and glory far above the kings 
and conquerors of this world — a height which no young man 
of Greece, of Macedon, or of Rome, ever attained — a height 
to which no power on earth can ever raise our fallen human 
nature, except that Divine power which comes from the princi- 
ples of the Bible. Would you stand where Moses stood, and 



OF THE BIBLE. 287 

reap the same recompense of reward ? Then fling away ambi- 
tion, fling away selflshness, be willing to lose all for Christ and 
conscienee\s sake, even life itself, and you shall not lose your 
reward. 

VI. SKETCH OF DAVID AND JONATHAN". 

Leaving Moses, we now cross another wide interval in the 
Bible biography of young men. The time would fail us to 
speak of the youth of Caleb and Joshua, Jephthah and Gideon, 
Barak and Samson, although the youth of some of them was 
highly distinguished. But, passing over these, let us fix our 
attention upon two notable young men, who were contem- 
poraries and companions in arms, and whose deeds of courage, 
prowess, and patriotism, adorned the long, eventful reign of 
Saul. They are David and Jonathan. 

In them we behold the young man on a new field of action, 
and in a new character — that of the patriot-soldier and mili- 
tary hero. The relation which existed between these two 
young soldiers was peculiar and remarkable. No tie of con- 
sanguinity bound them. But a tie, woven of the strong cords 
of sympathy, similarity of character, and admiration for each 
other's heroic deeds, had bound their hearts in a covenant of 
affection, and a brotherhood of mutual interest, stronger than 
the love of woman, and superior to all the calls of selfishness 
and ambition. Under the circumstances in which they stood to 
each other and to the kingdom, this friendship was as honora- 
ble as it was extraordinary. For Jonathan, as eldest son of 
Saul, was heir apparent to the throne ; whilst David, already 
anointed as king by Samuel, was claimant of that throne by 
Divine appointment. Yet they seem never to have thought of 



288 KEPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

each other as rivals. Nothing could more illustrate the piety 
and self-sacrificing spirit of Jonathan, than his devotion to 
the interests of his father on the one hand, and his devotion to 
the welfare of his friend on the other. He stood between 
them as a mediator and a preserver ; although, in the view of 
this world^s policy, he had everything to lose, personally, by 
that mediation. But whilst fighting for his father against the 
enemies of Israel, and at last dying by his side in battle, so far 
from having any feelings of envy or ambition towards David, 
he desired only to see him on the throne, and to occupy a 
place next to him in the kingdom. 

Noble, magnanimous, generous young man! the soul of honor, 
the pride of thy country ; the livmg name for valor, patriotism, 
and chivalry ; the impersonation of every manly and every 
princely virtue ! And, in all these rare and lofty attributes of 
character, David, while a young man, was not only a sharer, 
but an equal. We scarcely know which to admire most — the 
disinterested generosity of Jonathan in seeking the exaltation 
of David, or the moderation and magnanimity of David in 
repeatedly sparing the life of his persecutor, Saul, when he 
might have cut him off at a blow, and quietly ascended the 
throne. 

Each of these young men had, at an early period of life, 
performed a feat of daring valor for the deliverance of their 
country, from which the mightiest champions of Israel had 
shrunk ; and which at once established their fame as warriors 
amongst the veterans of the camp, and endeared their names 
to the people from Dan to Beersheba. Jonathan, with his 
armor-bearer as his sole companion, had stormed the powerful, 
and, as it was supposed, impregnable Philistine garrison at 
Michmash, which resulted in the overthrow of the whole invad- 



OF THE BIBLE. 289 

ing army, and the deliverance of Israel from their oppressors. 
David, too, alone and but a strijiling, on another occasion, had 
met and vanquished, in the face of the two hostile camps, the 
proud champion of Gath, who had, from day to day, defied the 
armies of the living God. By these unparalleled deeds, the 
two young patriot-volunteers had won the hearts of all their 
countrymen, and won each other's ardent love for life. 

Now the whole world has rung with the renown of the cele- 
brated defence of Leonidas and his band, at the pass of Ther- 
mopylae, which saved Greece from the Persian yoke ; rung with 
reports of the daring deeds of Alexander and Caesar, of the 
personal courage of Napoleon and his marshals on many a hard- 
fought field ; rung too, with well-merited eclat, for the gallan- 
try and heroism of Nelson, of Decatur, of Lawrence and Perry, 
on the seas ; but we venture to say, that you cannot find, in 
any one of these, or in any other, more of the essential charac- 
teristics of personal bravery, of daring purpose, of sublime self- 
immolation on the altar of the public good, more of all those 
elements, ^^ the bold endeavor and the high emprise, the strength 
to suffer and the will to serve," which go to make up a real 
hero, than are to be found in these two exploits of the son of 
Jesse and the heir of Saul. 

By iheir gallantry on these two memorable occasions, they 
crushed the power of the invader, inspired the armies of Israel 
with fresh enthusiasm, and the whole nation with gratitude 
and joy. So that the veteran soldiers of the camp vied with 
the daughters of Israel in doing honor to the heroic young men, 
who had thus, in the hands of Jehovah, become the deliverers 
of their common country. 

In the case of Jonathan, so great a favorite was he with the 
Tictorious army, that, when he was doomed to die because of 

13 



290 KEPEESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

a VOW wliicli his father had rashly made in the heat of battle, 
we are told : *' The people interposed, saying to Saul, ' Shall 
Jonathan die who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel ? 
God forbid. As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his 
head fall to the ground ; for he hath wrought with God this 
day.' So the people rescued Jonathan that he died not.'' In 
the case of David, when returniug in triumph from the slaughter 
of the Philistines, so high did the martial enthusiasm of the 
people run, on account of the great victory whose first blow had 
been struck by the stone and sling of the shepherd boy, that 
we are told : *' The women came out of all the cities of Israel 
singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, 
and with instruments of music. And the women answered 
one another as they played and said, ' Saul hath slain his thou- 
sands, and David his ten thousands.' " 

How must the pious, patriotic hearts of these young chief- 
tains, companions in danger and now in triumph, have swelled 
with thanksgiving to God and visions of coming glory, when, 
returning from the war, they first caught the notes of high and 
holy hallelujahs to Jehovah, wafted upon the evening breeze 
from all the band of Israel's daughters, and then wafted back 
again from all the echoing hills and waters, perhaps in the very 
words, forever memorable, of Miriam and her sisters at the Eed 
Sea, ^' Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously." 
It requires no stretch of fancy to mingle with them there, on 
their long and winding way, now toiling up the hill at the head 
of their war-worn veterans, all covered with dust, and laden with 
the spoils of victory ; and now reaching the summit which 
marks the boundary of home, whence may be heard, amid waving 
palms and banners, from ten thousand glad voices of mother, 
sister, and wife, the spirit-stirring words of that sublime chorus : 



OF THE BIBLE. 291 

" Strike the cymbal, roll the timbrel, 
Battle is the Lord's alone." 

"Spread your banners, shout hosannas, 
Israel's God is Lord alone." 

We must, however, leave David and Jonathan. As models 
of what a patriot-soldier and hero ought to be, they had no 
equals in that age, and they have bad no superiors in any. As 
such, they are worthy to be studied and imitated by our youth. 
Jonathan, w^hile yet a young man, fell in defence of his country, 
as already stated, at his father^s side, in the fatal conflict of 
Mount Gilboa. When the sad tidings of his death reached Da- 
vid, in a distant part of the land, the young minstrel and 
brother-warrior touched his harp in sweet and mournful strains, 
and sung a requiem to the memory of his early and faithful 
friend in the celebrated lamentation : 

" The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places ; 
How are the mighty fallen ! 
Tell it not in Gath. 

Publish it not in the streets of Askelon ; 
Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, 
Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. 

" Ye mountains of Gilboa ! let there be no dew, 

Neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings; 
, For there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away. 

The shield of Saul, as of one unanointed with oil. 

From the blood of the slain, 

From the fat of the mighty, 

The bow of Jonathan turned not back, 

And the sword of Saul returned not empty. 

Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lircs, 

And in their death they were not divided : 

They were swifter than eagles, 

They w^ere stronger than lions. 



292 REPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

" Ye daughters of Israel ! weep over Saul. 
Who clothed you in scarlet with other delights, 
Who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. 
How are the mighty fallen in the midst of battle ! 

Jonathan ! thou wast slain in thy high places. 

1 am distressed for thee, ray brother Jonathan. 
Very pleasant hast thou been unto me ; 

Thy love to me was wonderful, 
Passing the love of women. 
How are the mighty fallen, 
And the weapons of war perished!" 

Now we have sometimes tried to imagine what would be the 
feelings of two such young men as David and Jonathan, if they 
could come back into the world, and compare experiences with 
the young men of our own highly civilized generation. Sup- 
pose this eighth son of Jesse, the heroic shepherd boy, who was 
not afraid to beard a lion in his lair, and who had, in fact, slain 
both a lion and a bear, as well as the giant of Gath, before he 
was thought old enough to be a soldier ; or, suppose this lion- 
hearted, princely son of Saul could come and stand amongst 
the boys an^ young men of our times long enough to see their 
sports, their pastimes, and their achievements. What would 
they think of our progress, our vaunted greatness and refinement ? 
What opinion could these earnest, athletic, temperate, God- 
fearing young men of the olden time form respecting the fash- 
ionable young gentleman of our modern cities, whose chief ac- 
complishments are, that he can smoke and swear, drink and 
gamble, swagger and bet, and fight duels ; that he can, after 
the most approved maxims of the science, dance and flirt with 
silly women ; that he can afford to wear fine clothes, and do 
nothing ; whose most brilliant achievements are his victories in 
the ball-room, the bowling saloon, or at the card and billiard 



OF THE BIBLE. 293 

table ; and whose only title to fame is the fascination of his 
fine smile, and voice, and waving hair ? We honor and love 
the young man who is a man, or is likely to become one ; we 
hold him in eternal honor ; but if there is anything on earth 
which we abhor, it is the character of the young fashionable 
loafer, your cane-bearing, cigar-consuming, professed loafer, 
who is neither boy nor man, but a compound of both, with 
very little of either. 

Alas ! we fear there is a large and growing class of these in 
all our great cities, made up from the ranks of the wealthy 
and the educated, and sometimes even from the families of the 
church. Who has not marked with sorrow, in every city, 
those beardless boys with the air of men, who seem to have 
nothing to do but to lounge about at places of dissipation, and 
whose M'ords of levity and reckless profanity indicate the char- 
acter which they have already formed ? Follow them through 
ten years of city life such as this, and what is the result ? You 
have a type of character which is produced nowhere else on 
earth, except in cities and large towns ; you have young men 
with some of the external, without any of the internal attributes, 
of the gentleman ; young men, who combine the effeminate ap- 
pearance of a girl with the ferocious vices of a gladiator ; young 
men, who, to the morals of a bear, add the manners of a mon- 
key. Aye, we honor the young man ; but it is when there is 
something of a man in him ; something more, at least, than his 
clothes and his hair. 

What would David and Jonathan, Cyrus and Socrates, Cato 
and Scipio Africanus, or even our own Franklin, think the race 
of man was coming to, if they could rise from the dead, and 
take their stations at the corners of our streets, to see that 
living stream of elegantly-dressed and ruddy youth, from fifteen 



294 KEPKESKNTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

to twenty-five, pouring, at certain hours of tbe day, into those 
splendid coffee-houses and gilded palaces of pleasure, in which 
they are fitted and prepared to pour back again at night into 
the theatre and gaming-houses, and haunts of vice that crowd 
the city ? — If there is a spectacle on earth that might make 
heaven weep, it is to see our educated youth, of respectable, 
Christian families, with the boast of freedom and gentility on 
their lips, selling their heavenly birthright for w^orse than a 
mess of pottage — seUing themselves, soul and body, to the de- 
basing, execrable slavery of strong drink ; to see many a 
promising boy, the hope of a mother's declining age, and many 
a talented young man, whose stately tread once brought from 
the dust the sound of liberty, coming at last to lie down in the 
dirt and mire of a drunkard's grave, ! is there no puwer on 
earth that can arrest the curse ; that can rescue our sons from 
the horrible doom of drunkenness ; that can save our country 
from the incubus and the infamy of intemperance ? We see 
none, except in the strong arm of the law. 



VII. SKETCH OF SAMUEL AND SAUL. 

From the youthful David and Jonathan we may go back a 
little in the order of events, to contemplate two other Bible 
characters, w^ho, in like manner, were most intimately associated 
with each other through life, and were at last brought together 
in death, in a most remarkable manner. These are Samuel the 
Prophet and King Saul — one the founder of the prophetic order 
in Israel, the other the first of Jewish monarchs — both leading 
men in their generation and representative men to all the genera- 
tions to come, but at the same time as utterly unlike and 



OF THE BIBLE. 295 

repugnant to each other, as they were remarkable for their per- 
sonal endowments. 

In Saul we see a man who could not bear the exaltation of 
power ; unfit to be a ruler, because he could not rule his own 
turbulent spirit. Possessing unquestioned courage as a soldier ; 
blest with a magnificent personal appearance, well befitting a 
king ; in the words of the Bible, " a choice young man and a 
goodly ; so that there was not among the children of Israel a 
goodlier person than he ; from his shoulders and upwards 
higher than any of the people f possessing also an air of mod- 
esty, wisdom and virtue, that might have ennobled any private 
station, he nevertheless, on becoming a king, seemed to lay 
aside all his good qualities, to abuse all his advantages, and to 
become by turns, a despot, a fury, a fanatic, a murderer, a 
demon, and a rebel against God. He lived a wretched life, and 
at last, fell in battle with the worse than doubtful reputation 
of a suicide. His dark and turbulent spirit, the seat of every 
malignant and ferocious passion, stands as a fearful warning on 
the heights of power to teach us how far iniquity and disobe- 
dience may get the mastery over a man, who in his youth 
seemed to be the special favorite of earth and heaven, and to 
wear the fair exterior of a servant of the Most High. 

In Samuel we behold the very opposite. The noble son of 
Hannah, growing in favor, both with God and man, stands 
forth in bold contrast with the degenerate Saul. " All Israel 
from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to 
be a prophet of the Lord." His early childhood and youth, 
baptized with all the hallowed influences of a mother's prayers, 
dedicated to God amid all the holy ministrations of the public 
Sanctuary, and adorned with all the virtues that were needful 
to establish the sacredness of the prophetic office, cast their 



296 KEPKESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

lustre forward over his whole subsequent career. " Samuel 
ministered before the Lord, being a child girded with a linen 
ephod." He seems to have been the first child that bore the 
character of prophet. Such a childhood" might well make 
an honorable manhood and a glorious old age. 

In Samuel we trace the beginning of a new order of things 
among the Jews. He seems to have been the founder of the 
prophetic office as a permanent institution in Israel : just as he 
was, by divine direction, the founder of the kingly government. 
He arose at a time, when the spirit of prophecy, such as it had 
been in the days of Moses, and of Deborah, had departed from 
Israel. We are told that the ** word of the Lord was precious 
in those days ; there was no open vision." We have just 
had occasion to refer to his childhood, but need not repeat the 
story here. At the death of Eli and his sons, Samuel seems to 
have become the civil and ecclesiastical head of the nation. He 
was at once a statesman, jurist, and divine ; the last of the 
fifteen judges of Israel, the first of that long line of prophets 
which closed with Malachi, the connecting link between the 
Theocracy and the Jewish monarchy. Though a Levite by 
birth, we find him repeatedly offering sacrifice as a priest ; in 
the administration of public justice travelling as a judge on an 
annual circuit between Bethel, Mizpeh, Gilgal and Eamah, and 
sometimes working the most stupendous miracles for the vindi- 
cation of the cause of God, and the annihilation of the enemies 
of his country. 

But the great office which gave him supremacy over Israel was 
that of prophet. As such he held a position of higher authority 
before the people than the king himself whom he had anointed, 
because he stood as the interpreter of the Divine will. There is a 
peculiar interest in his long eventful history, beginning as it does 



OF THE BIBLE. 297 

before lie was born, and not ending even when be was dead. 
The circumstances which anticipated his birth seemed to find 
their counterpart in the strange apparition to Saul which fol- 
his death. Few men ever spoke with such kingly authority, and 
none certainly ever uttered a voice like his from the grave. 
History tells us of many men of insatiable ambition, who, like 
the famous Earl of Warwick, have aspired to the glory of making 
kings and controlling the destinies of states and empires. But 
here is a man, who without any aspiration or ambition, was the 
first and greatest of king-makers, setting up one, and putting 
down another in the name of the Lord and in virtue of his pro- 
phetical character. 

The longest and most remarkable prophecy delivered by 
Samuel, is that which describes the manner in which the peo- 
ple should be treated by their kings ; and which, as may be re- 
marked of all kingly governments, was often fulfilled to the let- 
ter under the Jewish monarchs. But perhaps the most interest- 
ing passage in the life of this great man, is that in which he 
protests his own integrity as a public officer, when resigning all 
civil authority and inducting Saul into the kingdom. ** And 
Samuel said unto all Israel. Behold, I have hearkened to your 
voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over 
you. And now behold, the king walketh before you : and I 
am old and grey-headed ; and behold my sons are with you ; 
and I have walked before you from my childhood until this 
day. Behold, here I am ; witness against me before the Lord, 
and before his anointed : whose ox have I taken ? or whose 
ass have I taken ? or .whom have I defrauded ? whom have I 
oppressed ? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to 
blind mine eyes therewith, and I will restore it. And they said, 
Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou 

13* 



298 EEPKESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

taken augbt of any man's hand. And lie said unto them, The 
Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this 
day, that ye have not found aught in my hand. And they 
answered. He is witness." 

What a beautiful tribute to the integrity of the man, who 
through a long life had held the chief place of power, and now, 
in his old age, voluntarily resigns that authority which he had 
held so long and wielded so well 1 Glorious old man ! sublime 
in the simple consciousness of spotless virtue, eloquent at the re- 
membrance that no misdeed had ever marked his public career. 
We get the idea not only of a venerable prophet, but of an up- 
right judge and patriot ; and the name of Samuel will stand for- 
ever associated with that peculiar glory of an unsullied ermine, 
which belongs to Aristides the Just among the Athenians, to 
Sir Matthew Hale among the English, and to Chief Justice 
Marshall in our own country. 



VIII. SAUL AND SAMUEL AT ENDOR. 

By way of episode, w^hich is itself one of the most striking 
characteristics of all the Bible history, we may here turn aside 
to contemplate a most singular transaction, which, though not 
belonging to our present theme, yet lies fairly in our way, and 
gives a strange dramatic termination to the history of these two 
representative men. 

The most remarkable event connected with the name of 
Samuel in the Bible, is that which occurred after his death — 
his apparition to King Saul in the presence of the Witch of 
Eniior, as narrated in the 28th chapter of the first book of 
Samuel. On a subject of so much interest to every Bible reader, 



OF THE BIBLE. 299 

and yet of so much difficulty, we would venture, in passing, 
to make a few remarks. Probably nothing in the Bible has 
given rise to more learned and laborious discussion amongst 
critics than the case of the Witch of Endor. Some assuming 
that the sorceress possessed powers of ventriloquism, have tried 
to explain all the alleged phenomena of the apparition on 
that hypothesis. Others have maintained, that the whole 
thing was a fraud — a gross deception palmed off, on the always 
excitable and now despairing mind of the king, through a secret 
understanding between the Witch and Saul's two attendants. 
Others have admitted all the appearances, as stated, to be real 
facts ; but ascribe them to a supernatural power possessed by 
the woman, as one in league with the Devil — real miracles- 
wrought by Satanic agency. Others again, and this we take 
to be the only true view, hold to the reality of all the appear- 
ances, but ascribe them to the miraculous power of God. That 
is to say, the record is a true history, and no myth, and the 
main fact, the apparition of the prophet, is a real miracle 
wrought by the hand of the Almighty. 

According to this view, the real prophet Samuel, who, while 
living, had mourned over the transgressions of Saul and had 
labored long and faithfully to reform him, and whom all Israel 
had long ago buried in his quiet tomb at Eamah with deep and 
heartfelt lamentations, did come back again to this living world 
to utter one more, and his last, solemn warning. He came not 
only to tell the guilty monarch of his impending doom, but to 
reprove him /or his last great offence — his treason against that 
ancient statute of Israel, which, as he knew, *^ suffered not a 
witch to live." We regard the apparition of Samuel as a true 
miracle of God, intended to enforce a lesson against all idola- 
trous and heathenish incantations, which the express letter of 



300 REPEESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

the law had hitherto failed to enforce. As such it is no more 
difficult to receive, than the stopping of the sun, the dividing 
of the sea, the preservation of Jonah, or any other inexplicable 
miracle of that miraculous age. For our own part, we never 
undertake to explain a miracle, by bringing it within the range 
of natural laws. To us there are no degrees of difficulty about 
miracles. They are all or nothing. The least requires the 
power of God ; the greatest claims nothing more. Without 
God^s finger, the least would be absurd aijd incredible : with it, 
the greatest and the least are alike possible and alike reason- 
able. 

But that a true prophet of Jehovah should be brought back 
from the dead, in order to reprove this first anointed king of 
Israel in the very act of his high-handed violation of the law 
which he had sworn to administer — that the very man, who had 
anointed him to fill that exalted place in the Theocracy, w^hich 
the Lord himself had heretofore filled, should start up, as it 
were from the ground, to utter his indignant and terrible denun- 
ciation upon such high-handed treason, is not stranger, when we 
consider the relation of the parties, and the greatness of the 
occasion, than that a dumb beast should be made to lift a 
warning voice against the madness of Balaam, or that the false 
prophet himself, in the midst of his divinations, should be con- 
strained to utter blessings instead of curses upon Israel. How 
is it any more incredible that Samuel should come back into 
this world, appearing to the senses of Saul and the witch of 
Endor in the form of a man, and, with the articular voice of a 
man, foretelling the events of the morrow, than that Moses and 
Elias should appear to Christ and his disciples on the mount 
of transfiguration, and, in their hearing, speak of the approach 
ing death at Jerusalem ? If we find no difficulty in the one 



OF THE BIBLE. 301 

case, where is the exceeding difficulty of the other ? As to any 
question about a real resurrection, or in what bodies they 
appeared, even setting Elias aside, we can do no more to 
explain the apparition of Moses on the mount, than that of 
Samuel at Endor. But if angels often appeared in the form 
and aspect of men, why is it difficult to conceive of Samuel or 
Moses, as appearing in their own peculiar form and aspect ? 

That Samuel did really appear, is evident from the fact, that 
the sorceress herself was thrown into consternation at the appa- 
rition. It is obvious that she expected no such messenger from 
the grave. She felt that a spirit had come more than she had 
bargained for — greater than her arts could quell again. She 
acted as one taken by surprise, and ready to cry out — '' Angels 
and ministers of grace defend us." That such a minister of 
justice should start up in her dark abode of guilt, was felt to be 
a frown from God, as awful as it was unexpected, both upon her- 
self, who as an outlaw was practising, and upon the rebel mon- 
arch who was seeking, these incantations of the devil. And 
what think you, would now be the effect of such an apparition 
in the midst of a clique of modern dealers in this same ancient 
craft — your clairvoyants and mesmerizers, your spirit-rappers and 
pretenders to intercourse with the dead. Suppose, that on some 
quiet evening, in some private chamber or public hall, where 
these modern propagators of superstition and folly are met with 
their dupes, seated face to face around their tables of incanta- 
tion, in eager expectation of the signs of a familiar spirit — sup- 
pose God should utter his voice and work a real miracle — an 
angel from heaven, or a messenger from the grave should 
appear — '' like gods ascending from the earth.'' There shall start 
forth a venerable form, '' an old man covered with a mantle,'^ 
and standing revealed to every eye, he shall utter, with up 



302 REPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEK 

lifted finger and unearthly voice, those words of terror — *' The 
Lord is departed from you, and become your enemy,'' — how 
w^ould such a company start from their divinations like the 
witch of Endor, and feel that the day of doom had come. How 
would they see *' Ichabod,'' written upon all their vile pretences 
and ill-gotten gains. How would they, in such an hour, find, like 
Belshazzar, the " Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," of a righteous dam- 
nation. 

Alas ! for the stren^rth of intellect and the boasted dio-nitv 
of human nature I Is it not sad to think, that in these days of 
light and knowledge, there are still women and men, claiming 
intelligence and common sense, not to say respectability, who 
have so far taken leave of their senses as to believe in witch- 
craft — pretending to hold intercourse with the dead through 
chairs and tables, brick and mortar — worshiping at a shrine 
of folly more absurd and degrading than any heathen oracle 
— worshiping in fact at the shrine of Endor (though under 
a different name) where Saul met the indignation of an angry 
prophet and an avenging Grod ! And with what brazen- 
faced effrontery do the abettors of these lying wonders parade 
them before the public, as science — discoveries of science I 
There is about as much science in them as there was in the den 
of the witch of Endor — the science of '' old wives' fables," and 
of men half mad, like Saul. We all know — every man of 
ordinary intelligence and common sense ought to know — that 
whatever of fact or reality there may be in the strange phe- 
nomena reported by mesmerizers, clairvoyants, rappers and table- 
movers, can easily be referred to electricity, animal magnetism, 
or known mechanical agents. And so far these reports are nei- 
ther new nor inexplicable. All that is true about them has 
been known long ago, or contains no marvel. The marvels and 



OF THE BIBLE. 303 

the novelties will all turn out to be false. We believe that 
after a full deduction has been made, first for fraud, and then 
for fanaticism, there will be next thing to nothing left in the 
way of real facts, which are so new that they have been un- 
known to science, and so wonderful that they must, per force, 
be referred to supernatural causes. Science scouts the whole 
.hing as a silly humbug. Religion frowns upon it as a willful 
and dangerous delusion. And here lies the danger. The 
absurd and wicked thing, the insane and dangerous thing, is this 
claim of supernatural agency — the pretence of intercourse with 
the dead, and of a revelation from the spiritual world. We 
have no hesitation in pronouncing, such a claim, to be a sham 
and a delusion — a species of witchcraft as vile and abominable 
as that of Endor. 

Do we judge harshly 1 We judge by the results, as well as 
by the established maxims of God^s word. By their fruits ye 
shall know them. What fruit has this tree borne ? What 
good thus far has it done for the world ? This whole tribe of 
reformers have come with the boast of science on their lips. 
In one form or other they have been at work some fifteen or 
twenty years. Trace their labors backwards through their 
various shifting phases of table-moving, spirit-rapping, biology, 
clairvoyance, mesmerism and phrenology — and tell us, if you 
can, what single discovery in science, or what useful invention 
in the fine or mechanic arts, they have all together added to 
the world during this age, so prolific in great improvements ? 
The only fruits which this tree can claim, as of its own bearing, 
have been " apples of Sodom and grapes of Gomorrah." It 
has led some to suicide, and some to insanity, and many to a 
total subversion of all religion and virtue. And next to that 
stupendous imposture, called Mormonism — that vile compound 



30i REPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

of licentiousness, ambition, hypocrisy iiud blasphemy, which is 

-seeking to inaugurate all the vices of savage life upon the 

throne of civilization, we regard this wide spread revival of 
Endorism as the most dangerous and degrading delusion of 

the times. 

'' Saul,'' remarks Gilfillan, " abandoned of heaven must go 
in his extremity and knock at the door of hell." It would seem 
that even yet men sometimes prefer knocking at the door of hell 
to that of heaven. There was a true prophet in Israel. But 
Saul would neither hear nor obey his voice. There is a sure 
word of prophecy in the world now — better than any Jewish 
Urim and Thummim, or ancient heathen oracle — a revelation 
from God himself, which tells us all we need to know about the 
dead and the unseen world. But many forsake the Bible for 
the unblushing impostures of Mormonism ; and many turn from 
prophets and apostles, and the son of God who spoke from 
heaven, to seek for familiar spirits through pots and cups and 
tables : and thus knock at the door of hell. Everything on 
earth has had an ancestry, and may boast a succession. We 
take it, that the men and women who perambulate the country 
and write books, professing to have communications with the 
dead, are the legitimate successors of Saul and the Witch of 
Endor, with this difference, that she staid in her den and wrote 
no book. In Pollock's Course of Time are two lines, in two dif- 
ferent books, which, if they had stood together, would make 
no mean example of parallelism, and describe this very case — 

" Productive was the world in many things, but most in books." 
*' Fertile was earth in many things, not least in fools.'* 



OF THE BIBLE. 305 



IX. ^THE CHARACTER OF ABSALOM. 



Next upon our list of noted Bible characters, appears a per- 
sonage altogether different from any we have yet contemplated. 
It is Absalom, the third and most beloved son of King David, 
with a character somewhat after our modern style. In him, we 
behold a young man in his farthest extreme from the youthful 
David and Jonathan. He stands out as an example of selfish- 
ness, ambition, and intrigue ; the unnatural son, the daring 
rebel, the unscrupulous usurper. He had the distinction, such as 
it is, of being the handsomest young man of his generation. 
*' In all Israel," says the sacred writer, " there was no one so 
much to be praised as Absalom for his beauty ; from the sole 
of his foot, even to the crown of his head, there was no blemish 
in him.'' We do not mention this as any disparagement in itself ; 
for had there been anything else good about him, his fine phy- 
sical form would have been a blessing. His heroic father, when 
a young man, as we are told, was a ^' comely person and of a 
beautiful countenance." But the outer man seems to have con- 
stituted the only point of resemblance between the father and 
the son. In every trait of character, no two young men of the 
Bible are more unlike than David and Absalom. 

Proud of his royal descent, both on the father's and the 
mother's side, proud of his splendid personal appearance, he was 
led by his excessive love of admiration, while yet at an early 
age, to erect a marble pillar, in the king's dale, to bear his 
name and perpetuate his precious memory. Too important a 
character, in his own esteem, to run any risk of being forgotten, 
he took the matter of posthumous fame in hand early, and, like 
other mighty ones of the earth, built a monument to tell men 



306 REPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

of the son of David, and the grandson of the king of Geshur. 
Perhaps he suspected, that, without something of the kind, his 
name would soon perish. He gloried in dress, in chariots, 
in fine horses, and in equipage. He had fifty men to run before 
him as he dashed along the streets, through the gates, and over 
the hills of Jerusalem. He seems, most of all, to have gloried 
in the exuberance of his hair, probably cultivating it from year 
to year with all that care with which a farmer w^ould till his 
fields for the harvest ; for we read, that he '' polled it at the 
end of the year," reaping an average crop if he cut it off, or 
bearing an annual burden, if he only trimmed it, *' of two hun- 
dred shekels of the kiug^s weight," — some four or five pounds 
more or less, of hair and ointment together. He w^as mani- 
festly the leader of the fashion of Jerusalem, and in that field 
distanced every competitor. A king, in expectation, surrounded 
already by his admirers and flatterers, he was to the court of 
David what Geor^-e IV. was to Eno-land in his dav — the hand- 
somest man, and at the same time of least account, in all the 
kingdom. He was evidently the prince of dandies ; the embod- 
iment of a fasliionable gentleman of the times ; the very Ches- 
terfield of Jerusalem ; at once the Beau Brummel and the Beau 
Nash of all Israel. 

But he was, withal, a man of some tact and talent. He never 
could have stolen the hearts of the people from a monarch so 
beloved as David, and come so near to success in wresting the 
the sceptre from his hands, had he not possessed something of 
the adroitness and address of a popular leader. With all his 
dandyism, he had talents enough to play the demagogue ; and 
in that he differs from the modern dandy. He is, in fact, the 
most finished example which the Bible gives us of that modern 
character — the artful, intriguing, political demagogue. If any 



OF THE BIBLE. 307 

one wishes to study the character at its fountain-head, and is 
at all curious to see the most ancient portraiture of it in the 
world, he may find it in this prince of popular idols as he is set 
forth in the second book of Samuel. 

With a bow of recognition to every passer-by ; with a smile 
of flattery for every rich man, and a kiss of condescension for 
every poor one ; with soft words of adulation for the great, and 
honeyed promises of redress for the lowly, he set himself every 
day in the gates of Jerusalem, as the reformer of abuses, the 
fast and loviug friend of the people, saying : *' 0, that I were 
made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or 
cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice." The 
Bible does not so inform us, but it is natural to suppose, that, 
possessing as he did a fascinating person and an elegant address, 
he was not a whit behind our modern demagogues ; but under- 
stood all their arts of ingratiating himself with the people, and 
stealing away the hearts of the men of Israel, by first making 
himself exceedingly polite and agreeable to the women and 
children. 

Feeling himself to be one who was born to command, and 
superior to his brothers by reason of his royal mother, there 
was nothing to which he would not stoop in order to conquer. 
He was the first to play that very common game of modern 
king-craft — assuming the demagogue for the sake of the despot 
— willing to be the people's man in order to be the people's 
master. And, with equal grace, he could play the flatterer 
and the tyrant. Having long since treacherously slain his 
eldest brother, Amnou, as much, no doubt, from policy with a 
view to the succession as from revenge for his sister's injury ; 
and having waited, probably, till Chileab, the second son, was 
dead, and being impatient now for that throne to which he wag 



308 KEPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

thus heir apparent, and which the long life of David prevented 
him from ascending — he devised that memorable conspiracy 
and rebellion, which you have all read, and which need not now 
be recited. With all his beauty and his advantages of birth 
and education, with all his professions of justice and benevolent 
regard for the people, his career in this unnatural, uugrateful, 
cruel rebellion, proved him to be a man who could ^* smile and 
smile, and be a villain f who could steal the " livery of heaven 
to serve the devil in." 

Think you we judge him harshly ? Eead his life again, and 
study his character well, and you will not think so. What ! 
judge him harshly, who, after driving from the throne that old, 
heart-broken father that had loved him so tenderly and forgiven 
him so much, and, after defiling his father's household upon the 
very housetop, in the face of all Jerusalem, by an incest similar 
to that for which he had killed his brother, could then raise an 
army, and pursue him in person across the Jordan, determined 
to be satisfied with nothing short of the patriarch's blood ? 
No, no ; it was nothing softer, nothing better than a villain's 
heart that beat beneath the fair exterior of such a man I His 
history shows how the beautiful and diabolical may sometimes 
meet in human nature ; how vice as well as poison may be 
gilded ; how the deadly venom of the viper may lurk beneath 
a skin radiant with the heavenly hues of the rainbow. 

And his tragical end was an appropriate doom for such a life. 
He fell in that battle in which he expected David to fall. By 
seeking the life, not less than the throne of his father, he had 
forfeited his own. And, as if the even-handed justice of heaven 
would have its perfect work, he fell a victim to his ambition by 
means of that very personal adornment in which his vanity had 
so much gloried. There can be no manner of doubt that he was 



OF THE BIBLE. 309 

hung by his hair ; for although we are barely told that he was 
caught by his head under the thick boughs of a great oak, still 
had he been thus caught and suspended by anything fastening 
the neck, he must have been instantly killed, either by the sud- 
den shock or by suffocation, which we know was not the case. 
The manner of his death- has often reminded us of the apostle's 
words, which, for aught we know, may have been suggested by 
it : *' Doth not even nature itself teach you, that if a man have 
long hair, it is a shame unto him ?" 

The victory, however, wliich had saved the life of David at 
the cost of his son's, was one of grief and bitter lamentation to 
the doting father. For, after all his crimes, Absalom was still 
the child of his yearning affections ; and there is probably not 
on record a more striking illustration of parental love, than 
that such a father should have said of such a son : "0, 
Absalom ! my son ! my son I Would to God I had died for 
thee, my son !" No doubt the keenness of David's anguish 
arose from the conviction, that he had been himself the cause 
of his son's ruin. He had committed great crimes in his own 
domestic relations ; and, although he had repented of them in 
dust and ashes long ago, they were now, according to the 
threatened judgments of God, bearing their bitter fruits in the 
dissensions and premature violent deaths of his children. He 
felt himself to be under the frown of God in all those calami- 
ties ; and justly so, because he knew, as well as we do, that 
even a man after God's own heart cannot commit great sins 
without paying great penalties. And as he mourned and wept 
for this darling child, he doubtless felt that had he been faithful 
to his marriage relations, faithful to his child, and faithful to 
God, this dreadful doom would not have overtaken him. 

As for Absalom, every one who reads the narrative of his 



310 REPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

rebellion must feel that he met the fate which he deserved ; that 
Joab was right, although in disobedience to the orders of his 
sovereign, in ridding the world of such a monster. He need 
not have reared a pillar in the king's dale ; his name will long 
survive his monument, and stand as a warning to all young 
men, to tell the sad story of the worst of sons, the prince of 
demagogues, and the fallen victim of a vaulting ambition. 



X. — ^THE YOUNG MAN AS SOVEREIGN. 

But we should weary you to speak in detail of all the pro- 
minent young men of the Old Testament. Those that remain to 
be mentioned, we must pass over with a briefer notice, although 
as distinguished, and as worthy of our study, as their predeces- 
sors. From the whole line of Jewish kings, extending from 
Saul to Zedekiah, most of whom ascended the throne in early 
youth, we select, for a passing glance, but two examples, in 
order to exhibit the young man of the Bible in the character 
of sovereign. These are Solomon and Josiah. The first was, 
in some respects, not only the most illustrious of kings, but the 
most remarkable of men. His name has descended to all ages 
in a way that no other name has ever equalled, a proverb for 
wisdom, learning, wealth, and wordly grandeur. And for all 
these he was most illustrious while as yet a young man. On 
the shoulders of his tender youth was laid the weight of a great 
empire, but with it he had the treasured experience of hoary- 
headed wisdom and philosophy. He was less than twenty years 
old when he sat down on the throne of David, at a period of 
profound peace between Israel and all the surrounding nations. 
And, beyond all comparison, he was the most accomplished mou- 



OF THE BIBLE. 311 

arch in Ms personal attainments, and the most puissant one in 
the extent of his influence abroad, that ever sat on David's 
throne. The queen of the South bowed in homage at his feet ; 
nor did Israel ever see ^* a greater than Solomon," save in him 
who was both '* David's Son and Lord," whose kingdom was 
not of this world. 

Blest with all the counsels which such a father as David could 
give him, endowed with the genius of a poet and the profound 
reason of a statesman ; crowned with an authority extending 
from Egypt to the Euphrates ; possessed of all that golden 
wealth which commerce was bringing him from the Ophir of 
the East and the Tarshish of the West, and, above all, inspired 
with a wisdom direct from God, he seems to have had all, and 
enjoyed all, that Divine Providence could bestow on mortal man, 
to make him great and happy. And although the meridian of 
his manhood was darkened by many clouds, and the sun of his 
old age at last w^ent down in gloom, yet was his early youth a 
morning of unparalleled brightness and glory. 

In the example of Solomon, therefore we behold the young 
man on the very pinnacle of this world's greatness ; we behold 
him invested with the largest measure of fortune, fame, and 
grandeur, that human life admits of ; we behold him like an 
angel, standing in the sun, but without an angel's strength to 
stand. Knowing as he did, by sad experience, the perils of 
such a position, well might his dying father utter that solemn 
injunction : ** Thou Solomon, my son, know thou the God of 
thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing 
mind ; if thou seek him, he wall be found of thee ; but if thou 
forsake him, he will cast thee off forever." 

But we cannot follow his history further now. We must 
leave him there in his tender youth on those heights of glory. 



312 KEPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

As we turn away, however, dazzled by the excessive light of 
such a vision, we seem to hear a voice of foreboding, saying of 
the world, '* Vanity of vanities, all is vanity f we seem to hear 
the voice of that same man, though no longer the voice of 
youth, saying to the young men of every land : ** Remember 
now thy Creator, in the days of thy youth, while the evil days 
come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say I have 
no pleasure in them." 

Of the good king Josiah, much more might be said than our 
present limits will allow. Although his lot was cast in the last 
degenerate days of the kingdom of Judah, he was imbued with 
much of the patriotic, heroic, and religious spirit of his great 
ancestor David. Had the times and the people, and the long- 
delayed judgments of heaven, permitted it, he might have re- 
stored the nation to something of its pristine glory. He is an 
example amongst many others in history to teach us, that cir- 
cumstances and great men must work together in order to pro- 
duce a grand result ; that a really great and noble character 
may struggle in vain, as to any lasting result, when the great 
occasion is w^anting, when the foundations are destroyed, and 
the times are all out of joint. Still, for the circumstances 
surrounding him, he accomplished a great and glorious work. 
Called to the throne when only eight years old, and distinguished 
for his piety, even at that early age, he took in hand the work 
of a radical reform among the people at twelve ; and during a 
reign of thirty-one years, successfully carried forward the most 
thorough work of that kind, which had ever been wrought 
amongst the Jewish people. Fearing God from his childhood, 
in a period of universal corruption, he had so far infused his 
own spirit into the nation, and brought them back to the 
observance of the law of Moses, that, when he was slain in 



OF THE BIBLE. 313 

battle in his thirty-ninth year, fighting for his country, he had 
the distinction of being the best-beloved while living, and the 
most lamented when dead, of all the Jewish sovereigns. He 
was to his country what Edward VI. would probably have been 
to England had he lived as long — a wise king and a good 
man. 

XI. ^YOUNG MEN OF THE CAPUVrTY. 

In closing our account of the young men of the Old Testa- 
ment, we have barely time to allude to several, under one group, 
who lived in the perilous times of the Jewish captivity. In two 
of them, Jeremiah and Daniel, we see the young man as he 
appears in the sublime character of a prophet of the Most 
High. Jeremiah was called to the prophetic office at an unu- 
sually tender age ; and, after contributing much to strengthen 
the hands of his youthful sovereign, Josiah, in his great refor- 
mation, he continued to prophesy at Jerusalem during all the 
years of its decline and fall — until prophecy was exchanged for 
a book of Lamentations over the doom of his unhappy country. 
Daniel was only in part contemporaneous with Jeremiah, coming 
a little later on the stage, and being one of the children of the 
captivity at Babylon, whilst the weeping prophet, after the fall 
of Jerusalem, was carried down into Egypt. DanieFs whole 
career, of alternate adversity and promotion in the land of his 
exile, bears a very strong resemblance to that of Joseph in 
Egypt. While yet a young man, he was as much distinguished 
as an interpreter of dreams, a statesman, and prime minister of 
the king of Babylon, as he was afterwards for his fearless piety 
and his prophetical office. These two young servants of Jeho- 
Tah, Daniel and Jeremiah, though living in distant cities^ were 

14 



314: REPRESENT ATIYE YOUNG MEN 

greatly alike in that stern, inflexible energy and intrepidity of 
character, with which they discharged their respective missions, 
and braved the wrath of haughty, tyrannical kings on more 
than one occasion. Jeremiah, though by nature endued with a 
heart as timid and sensitive as any woman's, was by grace a 
hero, armed for any work. We never see him alone, in the 
privacy of his devotions, when he is not weeping, and pouring 
out his complaints in the ears of Jehovah. And we never see 
Mm in public, standing up to utter the vengeance of the Lord 
against the corrupt kings and princes of Judah, when he does 
not appear as a man whose face is adamant, and whose nerve 
is iron. He was frequently imprisoned, and once immured in 
a deep, dark dungeon, where he expected soon to perish in the 
mire. 

And so Daniel, rather than swerve a hair's breath from the 
line of duty and allegiance to the God of his youth, did not fear 
the wrath of all his enemies, nor shrink from the terror of a 
lion's den. The world has loved to celebrate the noble daring 
of its apostles of liberty, its champions for the rights of man, 
its Tells and Savonarolas, its Hampdens and Sidneys, its Wal- 
laces and Russells, its Husses and Jeromes ; but the world has 
beheld no finer examples of heroic moral courage for truth and 
right, and conscience sake, than those which were exhibited so 
long ago in Jeremiah's dungeon and Daniel's night with the 
lions. In the midst of sorrounding wickedness, and in the face 
of danger and death, they stood up heroically as witnesses for 
God ; ready, if need be, to seal their testimony with their 
blood ; ready, by a death of martyrdom, to vindicate a life 
devoted to the cause of the true God. 

They stood not alone, however, even in those degenerate days. 
We find a parallel case in three other young men of the cap- 



OF THE BIBLE. 315 

tivity — DanieFs companions, Hanauiah, Mishael and Azariah, 
whose faith, like pure gold, stood the test of the fiery furnace 
of Nebuchadnezzar. For daring all and suffering all in defence 
of the true religion, these three children of the captivity, 
although they escaped death, are well worthy of a place in the 
noble army of martyrs. Along with Daniel, they had been pro- 
moted by the king, and placed in authority over the provinces 
of Babylon ; but rather than yield to a decree requiring them 
to abjure their religion, by worshiping an idolatrous image 
which he had set up in the plain of Dura, they were willing to 
lose, not only their posts of honor, but their lives. Persisting 
in their refusal, they were thrust into the ^' fiery furnace, heated 
seven-fold ;" and thus appealing from man^s judgment to God^s 
they were miraculously delivered by " One like unto the Son of 
God," walking with them in the midst of the flames. 

In their example, we have an early and sublime illustration 
of the way in which men must obey God rather than man, 
when human laws come in collision with the Divine ; not by 
taking the sword of resistance, but by firmly standing to their 
principles, and leaving the result to God ; not by rising in 
rebellion against the ** powers that be," but by standing ready, 
like Paul, both to suffer and to die for the sake of their reli- 
gion. The principle was gloriously illustrated in the history of 
all the apostles, as it had been in the life and death of their 
Master. It has been illustrated on every page of the book of 
Christian martyrology. The persecuted witnesses of the truth 
in every land — the heroic confessors, and reformers, and non- 
conformists of the church, from Paul to Wickliffe, and from 
Wickliffe to the present hour — have only acted out this great 
Protestant principle, which was so early and so signally vindi- 
cated on the plain of Dura, by Shadrach, Meshach and Abed- 



316 KEPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

nego — to obey God rather than man, to suffer all rather than 
betray the truth. It is the opposite of that cowardly, time-ser- 
ving, Erastian spirit, which, under cover of loyalty to the state, 
would sell the Saviour for thirty pieces of silver ; whose first 
principle is to hold fast to its living and let its religion go. It 
is the opposite of the weather-cock spirit of the notorious vicar 
of Bray, who, during the civil commotions of the English refor- 
mation, was twice a Papist and twice a Protestant, and when 
charged with his inconsistency, replied, " It is not so ; I 
always keep to my principle, which is, To live and die vicar of 
Bray.'' 

XII. — THE YOUNG MEN OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

We cannot dwell, at any length, upon the character of the 
young men of the New Testament. The completeness of our 
subject, however, demands, that they should not be omitted 
altogether. In order to have before us a sort of panoramic 
view of the young men of the whole Bible history, it will be 
sufficient barely to mention a few of the most memorable ex- 
amples of the New Testament, whose names and characters are 
already so familiar to the young, as not to need anything like 
descriptive delineation, except so far as to indicate that rank 
and dignity which they hold in the annals of human greatness. 

Prominent on the pages of the Gospel history, and marked 
by every eye, there stand forth two young men bearing the 
same name, though greatly dissimilar both as to character, and as 
to outward appearance — John the Baptist, and John the Evan- 
gelist. Called in early life to the great mission of the gospel of 
God — called to bear an active part in that great work for which* 
the young men and the old men, of all preceding generations had 



OF THE BIBLE. 317 

been preparing the way — and endued with grace and wisdom 
from on high, they were destined, each in his own peculiar sphere 
and office, to exert an influence on all posterity, by the intro- 
duction and establishment of Christianity, as the religion which 
must ultimately conquer the world. So far as we can ascer- 
tain, they were each about thirty years of age, when they 
appeared upon the great stage of actual conflict for God and 
the gospel. The one, coming in the spirit and power of Elias 
— clad indeed in the rough garb and wearing the austere aspect 
of that greatest of all the ancient prophets — emerges from the 
wilderness, where he had spent the riper years of his youth in 
communion with nature and with God, and as the forerunner 
of the great Messiah, stands on the banks of Jordan and utters, 
in the hearing of the ten thousands of Israel there assembled, 
that long predicted voice — ^' The Kingdom of Heaven is at 
hand ; prepare ye the way of the Lord." The other, early 
called into the family of Jesus, where he is accustomed to lean 
upon the Master's bosom, and where doubtless his early attain- 
ments in grace and purity, had won for him the title of " belov- 
ed disciple,^' although probably the youngest of the apostolic 
band, stands forth with all the ardor and energy of youth to 
fulfill the high commission — '' Go ye into all the world and 
preach the gospel to every creature." The one, as the last and 
greatest of all the prophets — a burning and a shining light — 
ushered in the morning of Zion's glory, and then passed away. 
His work was great and soon done. His fidelity and zeal won 
for him an early grave and a martyr's crown. The other, as 
the last and most blest of all the apostles, was permitted first 
to close the evangelical record, and then, by his wonderful 
apocalypse, to close the cannon of inspiration — tarrying on 
earth long enough to see that cause, in which he had spent his 



318 REPRESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

years, both of youth and manhood, established amongst all 
nations. 

Shall we mention other examples ? In Timothy, who had 
known the Scriptures from his childhood, we behold, as it were 
the connecting link between the young men of ancient and of 
modern times. In him as a faithful soldier of the cross, as a 
preacher of the gospel of peace, and as a pastor in the church 
of Christ, the young ministers of all subsequent times, have 
found an admirable exemplar for their own instruction and 
encouragement. Through the inspired directions given to him, 
many a youthful herald of the cross has learned, so to temper a 
burning enthusiasm with the wisdom of age, as practically to 
verify the precept of the great apostle — *'Let no man despise 
thy youth." And of that apostle himself, what shall we now 
say ? What might we not say of Paul, as a young man ! of 
Paul, the Hebrew of the Hebrews, the disciple of Gamaliel, the 
young persecutor, the young convert to the faith of Jesus — 
sacrificing all his prospects of wordly glory, and bringing all 
his learning, all his energies, all his eloquence, to defend and 
to propagate the cause of the crucified Nazarene 1 But it is 
enough, at present, barely to mention his name, and with it, to 
close our list. 

From the rapid and extensive survey which we have now 
taken of the broad fields of Scripture biography, you see what 
distinguished honor God has, from the beginning, conferred 
upon young men, in carrying forward the grand interests of his 
kingdom in this world. You have seen what responsibilities 
they have borne, what achievements they have made, what 
destinies they have fulfilled, in the great drama of human his- 
tory, during its first forty centuries. And the part performed 
by the young men of the Bible, was but a type of what has been 



OF THE BIBLE. 319 

done by young men in all subsequent ages. In every field of 
discovery and achievement, many of the greatest and most en- 
during works which have been accomplished on earth, have 
been begun and often finished, by men, before they had reach- 
ed the meridian of hfe. This is as true of the evil, as of the 
good. The history of the world — the history of the church — 
nay, the history of redemption itself, in an important sense, has 
been written in the lives of young men. Perhaps it is not too 
much to say, that the greatest amount, both of evil and of 
good, which all men have done, they have done while they were 
yet young and strong. This, we know is true of many of the 
must remarkable characters in history. Lafayette, in his 
very boyhood, volunteered to fight the battles of America, and 
before he was twenty-five, had won the confidence of Washington 
the admiration of the world, and a name forever embalmed in 
the memories of a free people. Alexander the Great had con- 
quered the old world, and laid the foundations of the third 
great empire of antiquity, before he had reached the age of 
thirty-three. At a similar age, Scipio Africanus, the noblest 
of all the Eomans, had carried the war of his country into 
Africa, and had won the prize of victory over the veteran, 
and, till then, invincible Hannibal. Napoleon had fought his 
most brilliant battles, formed his grand schemes of universal 
empire, and filled the world with his fame, before he was twenty- 
nine. Luther had kindled the fires of the great Reformation 
before he was thirty-five ; and Calvin, deducing a finished sys- 
tem of theology from the Scriptures, had published his immor- 
tal " Institutes," before he was twenty-seven. The younger 
Pitt was prime minister of Great Britain in his twenty-third 
year ; and before he was thirty, stood preeminent amongst the 
statesmen of Europe. Henry Martyn, leaving the halls of science 



320 KEPKESENTATIVE YOTIKG MEN 

and honorable preferment at home to preach Christ to the per- 
ishing, with heroic self-sacrificing toil, completed a translation 
of the New Testament into two languages of the East, and fell 
a martyr to the work at the age of thirty-one. Whitefield and 
Summerfield were each immortal at twenty-five, having filled 
both hemispheres with the fame of an eloquence and success in 
preaching the gospel, which had not been surpassed since the 
days of the apostles. Our own great statesmen, the three 
American magnates of this nineteenth century, Webster, Clay 
and Calhoun, had, each before the age of thirty, won such 
triumphs of eloquence at the bar and on the forum, as led men 
to predict that meridian of splendor and old age of glory, which 
they lived to verify. And when did the world ever behold 
a more splendid combination of all the rare and glorious attri- 
butes that make the young man immortal, than it has just wit- 
nessed in our countryman. Dr. Kane, who, before he was 
thirty-three, had trodden the most inaccessible parts of our 
planet, and at thirty-five returned to die a martyr to the boldest 
attempt that science and humanity ever made to reach the 
pole and save the lost ! 

Such then is the glory, such the responsibility, to which God by 
the voice of his providence, and by all the voices of past history, 
calls the young men of this generation. But to conclude, and 
to recapitulate : we have now contemplated the young man of 
the Bible, as one of the most remarkable, the most instructive 
and attractive features of the book. We have seen him in all 
his shades of character, and fortune. We have marked him 
first in the person of Adam, coming forth as lord of a new world, 
in the glorious image of his Divine Author. We have seen him, 
a little after, sealed as the first of martyrs in Abel, and branded 
as the first of murderers in Cain. We have seen him next, 



OF THE BIBLE. 321 

under the inspiration and the wonder-working providence of 
God, becoming, in Joseph, the deliverer and the mighty ruler 
of the land of Egypt, We have gazed upon the moral gran- 
deur of his character in Moses, as that of a self-denying and yet 
triumphant believer in the unseen, the eternal, the Divine. We 
have followed him next through the din of battle, and admired 
the lofty bearing of the patriot soldier, and the invincible, 
God-fearing hero, in the youthful David and Jonathan. We 
have soon after read the wretched doom of Absalom, and learned 
from him, what a young man is, when he becomes a rebel son, 
a demagogue and usurper, a votary of vanity and a victim of 
ambition. Then again, we have seen the young man as sove- 
reign, standing on the perilous heights of hereditary power, 
combining the character of poet, preacher, philosopher and 
statesman, in the full-orbed glory of Solomon, or that of civil 
and religious reformer in the young and much lamented King 
Josiah. Still further on, amid the terrors of a dungeon, a lion's 
den, and a fiery furnace, we have looked upon the young man as 
he appears in Daniel and Jeremiah, arrayed in the stern and 
awful grandeur of a prophet of God, or in the three children of 
the captivity, as the uncompromising confessor, witness and 
defender of the true religion. Later still, in John the Baptist, we 
have heard the young man from the wilderness, in that sublime 
voice, which seemed to concentrate all the prophetic voices of the 
past in one, calling men to flee from the wrath to come, and to 
** behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." 
And the last of all, in the seraphic St. John, in the admirable 
Timothy, and in the indefatigable and incomparable Paul, we 
have found the young man, under a new and nobler dispensation 
of light and of love, proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation, in 
the name of Jesus, to the perishing nations of the whole world. 

14* 



S22 KEPBESENTATIVE YOUNG MEN 

And now, if anything more were needed to place the crown of 
immortal glory upon the brow of youth, it is the fact, that 
Jesus was himself a young man, and that, by dying and rising 
again, as such, he remains a young man forever. The incarnate son 
of God, before he was thirty-four, had fulfilled his great mission 
on earth, finished his grand work of atonement and salvation, 
won all his triumphs over death and hell, unbarred the prison of 
the grave, glorified God, and purchased immortality for man — 
and had done all in the character of a young man. As such 
the first Adam had fallen and lost all. It was fit then, that the 
second Adam, while yet in the dew of youth, should stand for 
us, and restore the ruins of the fii'st. And it is a pleasing 
thought, that in the person of Jesus, the inhabitants of heaven 
now behold, not only the restoration of our human nature from 
the ruins of the fall, but its exaltation and apotheosis in a state 
of immortal youth. 

These things the angels desire to look into. And into these 
things the nations of the earth will desire to look more and more, 
Christ is already the central object of all history, and all human 
thought. It is the name which thrills most deeply through the 
great heart of the world — which absorbs its daily activities, and 
its midnight meditations, as no other name has ever done 
before. Be the field of discussion what it may, be the writers 
or speakers who they may — atheist or infidel, deist or skeptic, 
rationalist or Christian — the all-absorbing theme is still the same, 
the one ceaseless thought is about Christ. The officers of the 
Jewish Sanhedrim unconsciously uttered a great prophecy as 
well as a great truth when they said, '' Never man spake like 
this man." For whether he spoke divinely or humanly, in words 
wisdom or of fable, as a Jewish Rabbi or as the son of God, 
one thing is certain, he so spoke that the world has never ceased 



OF THE BIBLE. 323 

to speak of him, and never can. Even the infidels and ra- 
.ionalists of these modern times, from Spinoza down to Strauss, 
by every volume which they have published, and every effort 
they have made to crush his cause, have only fulfilled the pro- 
phecy and added fresh confirmation to that ancient record, that 
no man ever spoke like Jesus. Such herculean efforts, made 
from generation to generation, and still renewed after eighteen 
hundred years of defeat, to prove him a common man, and his 
religion but a dream, by the very intensity of their zeal, recoil 
and refute themselves ; for they, if nothing else, bear witness, 
that he was no common man, and that his religion is one of the 
strongest vitalities in the world. The wider and stronger the 
opposition, the stronger and clearer is the proof, that the young 
Nazarene, though leaving the world after a few brief years of 
public teaching, had nevertheless so lived, so spoken, and so 
died, that all the world, infidelity not excepted, has heard his 

voice and felt his power. By a public ministry of three years 
spent in toil and privation, and ending in a death which the 

world regarded as his complete and everlasting overthrow, 
he produced effects upon the world, greater and more enduring 
than any other man, public or private, old or young, ever pro- 
duced. So that from the lowest conceded facts of his life, 
regarded simply as a history, it is impossible to turn away 
without believing the truth of his doctrine as a theology. 
Admit the plain facts of his manhood, and there is no escape 
from the logical conviction of his Godhead. The only solution 
of such a Son of man, is in the conception of such a Son 
of God. Admit the " Christ of History," as the point has 
been well argued by a recent author, and you admit all that 
the Christ of Revelation ever claimed to be. 



324. - SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 



CHAPTER VII. 

SCIENCE AND THE SAGES OF THE BIBLE. 

Relations and Bearings of the Subject — The Moral Science of the Bible — The Bible on 
Physical Science — First Scientific Characteristic — Second Characteristic — Third 
Characteristic — Additional Illustrations — The Sages of the Bible. 

I. ^RELATIONS AND BEARINGS OF THE SUBJECT. 

No apology we trust, will be demanded for selecting the 
Science and Sages of the Bible, as a topic entitled to stand 
amongst those which have already claimed our attention in 
these pages. Some, perhaps, may be ready to ask at first, 
what good can come out of such a subject — so narrow in its 
range, so barren in all its aspects, so unattractive in its very 
announcement ? The Bible, it is freely admitted, is not a 
scientific book in any ordinary sense. Whatever may be its 
claims to literature, it does not profess to teach the natural 
sciences ; it is not received as an authority in the scientific 
world ; nor do its writers, anywhere, lay claim to the title of 
philosopher or sage. 

It does, indeed, sometimes speak of science, and of the Gre- 
cian philosophers : but it is only to put us on our guard 
against the babblings of a vain philosophy, and the oppositions 
of a science falsely so called. It is evident at a glance, that 
the book of God was not inspired for the purpose of being a 



OF THE BIBLE. 325 

text book of natural science. It was not ghen as a history 
of the wonderful phenomena of the material universe, but as a 
revelation of man's origin, relations, duties and destiny. But 
still, our theme, whether barren or fruitful in itself considered, 
when viewed in all its relations and bearings, becomes one of 
attractive interest to all those who wish to know, not only what 
the Bible has said, but especially what it has not said, about 
science and philosophy. We deem it of essential importance 
to all the lovers of truth, and especially to our educated youth 
who will soon be called to guide the opinions of others, that 
the line which defines the true relations between science and 
the Bible, should be distinctly drawn and clearly understood. — 
It is our object to aid in pointing out the landmarks of 
that important boundary. It has been well remarked by one 
of our scientific men, that the subject may be presented in such 
a way as to *^ impart instruction, remove difficulties from the 
minds of the scrupulous, and deepen the convictions of re- 
ligious truth ; but on the other hand, it is easy so to exhibit 
it as to excite bigotry and prejudice, alarm the con- 
scientious and do injury both to science and religion." Obvi- 
ously it is a subject of profound interest alike to the scientific, 
the literary and the religious man. 

It may be claimed for the Bible, that in the broadest sense, 
it is a book of learning, as learning existed in the ancient 
world. It comes down to us, laden vfith the rich stores of 
ancient oriental wisdom — the treasured lore of the first forty 
centuries of human history. It tells us of men, like Moses, 
learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and Solomon filling 
the world with the fame of his intellectual greatness. It tells 
of Eastern sages, like Daniel, '' skillful in Chaldean wisdDm, cun- 
ning in knowledge, understanding scie'ace," and of Western 



326 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

scholars like Paul, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and 
versed in all Eabbinical and Grecian literature. 

And although it has given no clue to scientific discovery, 
and shed no light upon the brilliant pathway of our modern 
science, in her explorations of material nature ; still, it has 
not been without its influence in stimulating and directing the 
progress of the modern scientific world. Although the Bible 
has had no mission to teach philosophy how to cast her mea- 
suring lines into the sea, or sink her shafts into the heart of the 
earth, or stretch her telescopes through the untrodden fields 
of space ; nevertheless it has been a book of intense and undy- 
ing interest to the most scientific minds, not only because it con- 
tains the Divine wisdom and Eternal life, but because of the pecu- 
liar and wonderful relations which it sustains to science in general 
and to the spirit of scientific discovery in particular. In its gen- 
eral tone and spirit everywhere encouraging scientific investi- 
gation, and yet nowhere pointing the way to scientific dis- 
covery ; everywhere, speaking freely and fully of the diversified 
phenomena of the earth and heavens, yet nowhere explaining 
anything or professing to teach anything on such subjects ; it 
has, in fact, so adjusted itself, from the beginning, to each ad- 
vancement in science, that it would seem to have anticipated all 
its discoveries ; and so far from having received any damage 
from all these new worlds of wonder which it has itself evoked 
from the vast deep of things unknown, the Bible has only 
awakened additional interest in its own revelations, and gained 
fresh confirmation for its own claims from every realm of liv- 
ing nature, and every department of the known universe. 

Its language has adjusted itself to the vocabulary of univer- 
sal science, in precisely the same way that its prophecy has 
adjusted itself to the facts of universal history. The history 



OF THE BIBLE. 327 

of tbe world lias furnished a thousand opportunities of refuting 
the prophecies of Scripture, had its prophecies been false. 
Even so, the discoveries of modern science have furnished in- 
numerable opportunities for disproving the alleged facts of 
Scripture, had these facts been unfounded. That the Bible 
should have maintained its ground so long and so well, under 
the searching analysis and concentrated light of our modern 
inductive philosophy, will appear all the more wonderful when 
w^e consider how all other ancient books of religion, and schools 
of philosophy, and systems of mythology, and anthropology, 
have given way before it like the stars of night before the 
morning sun. How long could the Shasters of India, or the 
astrologies of Egypt, the hoary religious system of China, or 
the astronomy of Ptolemy, the cosmology of the intellec- 
tual Greeks and Romans, or even the partly borrowed Koran 
of Mohammed, stand before the light of our modern astronomy? 
But the Bible has been standing before it, ever since the days 
of Copernicus and Galileo, and still stands in the meridian 
of its light as little dimmed or daunted by its brightness, as 
the eye of the eagle by the sun. 

*^ Hitherto," says Gilfillan, '' the result of all new discoveries 
has been, to dart new notice, new light, new interest, upon the 
pages of this marvelous book, which, like the full moon, shines 
undimmed, whatever stars come up the midnight. In her ma- 
jestic simplicity, she fears no rival among all those new telesco- 
pic orbs which are arriving every hour, and can suffer no eclipse 
from them ; and neither need the Bible, in its pure, mild, and 
crystal sphere, be alarmed at all the starry revelations of sci- 
ence." No, the Bible has no more to fear from science, than 
science has to fear from the Bible. Why should either have 
anything to fear from the other ? Are they not both revelations, 



S28 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

though written in different books, of the same infinitely wise and 
}.erfect God ? And must not the true teachings of God in the 
volume of his works, be always harmonious with tlie true teach- 
ings of God in the volume of his words ? There can be no 
greater absurdity than to say that true science can ever come 
into real conflict with any true interpretation of the Bible ; for 
it is just equivalent to saying, that God can contradict himself. 
No ; let all such fears be buried with the theologians of Gal- 
ileo's times, who thought, that if the earth moved, the Bible 
must fall ; and that to prevent so great a catastrophe, they 
must stop the mouth of the philosopher, by imprisonment or 
death. Poor way that to stop the earth from moving or the 
Bible from falling ! True science and true theology are friends ; 
and they may well afford to be fast friends now, in the day of 
their triumph, for they have gone hand in hand, through many 
a day of peril in their past history. They point upward to 
the same great Author, and onward to the same destiny 
of perfect knowledge. Ever since the Bible has had a fair 
foothold amongst men, all the science in the world that has 
been worthy of the name, has been found closely clus, 
tering around it, and ready to make common cause in its de- 
fence. Modern heathenism has produced no true science in 
any department. The ancient classical nations produced very 
little that outlived their downfall. Mohammedanism has added 
nothing to the stock, that may not be traced to the Bible. 
All that the barren soil of infidelity and atheism has ever pro- 
duced, has been produced under the fostering influences of the 
Bible. Historically, it is a most important and significant fact 
that the Bible, so long as it has stood at all, has been standing 
at the head of the science of the world ; and science has made 
no advancement anywhere on earth without this book. All our 



OF THE BIBLE. 329 

modern physical sciences, which have sprung up under the in- 
ductive method of the Baconian philosophy, owe their existence 
to that spirit of free inquiry which the Bible created among the 
nations of Europe about the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. They are all daughters of the Great Eeformation, as that 
is of the Bible. And in return, the religion of the Bible owes 
to modern science, her first-born, fairest child, an eternal debt 
of gratitude for the noblest vindication of her own celes- 
tial origin, that has ever been made for her since the age 
of miracles. For modern science to assail the Bible, is as 
if the child should lift an ungrateful hand against the mother 
that had nursed its infancy. And for the Bible to assail science, 
is but for the mother to turn against the daughter who bears her 
image, and has done her most honor in the eyes of all mankind. 



II. ^THE MORAL SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE. 

But in what sense is the Bible a scientific book, and what do 
we mean when we speak of the science of the Bible ? In a 
general sense, all our knowledge of truth, of whatever kind, even 
historical, is sometimes called science. And in that sense, the 
Bible being all true, might be said to be full of science. But 
this is not the usual meaning of the word. Strictly and pro- 
perly speaking, the term science is applied only to that part of 
our knowledge which has been systematized ; whose facts and 
principles have been classified and arranged in a definite 
order, by the process of the inductive philosophy. And in this 
sensv'^, it is obvious, that the Bible is not, and was not intended 
to be, a scientific book. 

At this point, however, we meet with an important distinction 



330 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

arising out of the very nature of the sciences. If we look at the 
whole circle of the sciences, we shall find, that they may all be 
arranged under two grand divisions, in reference to the two dis- 
tinct fields of human inquiry, the moral, or spiritual sciences on the 
one hand, and the physical or natural sciences on the other, cor- 
responding somewhat to the ancient distinction of physics and 
metaphysics. Now, to one of these departments the Bible 
holds a very different relation from that which it holds to the 
other. In the one, it has scarcely spoken at all, and does not 
claim to be a teacher. In the other, it has spoken, fully, earn- 
estly, and with all the authority of a teacher come from God ; 
but never even here, in a scientific form, never in the language 
of the schools. 

On the subjec^of the natural or physical sciences, which con- 
stitute the peculiar glory of our modern philosophy, and whose 
domain lies in the material universe, the Bible is almost 
silent, giving us neither the materials nor the forms of a com- 
plete science — giving some of its facts, but none of its theories. 
But on all those branches of knowledge, in which classical anti- 
quity gloried most, and gloried in vain, whose domain lies in 
the unseen world of thought — the spiritual, immaterial universe 
relating to God, to the nature of truth and virtue, to the 
nature of man, as a social, moral, intellectual and immortal 
being —on all these, the Bible has spoken clearly and abun- 
dantly, giving us all the materials of the science of God and 
man, but not in a scientific form — giving us the essential facts, 
without the theorv, of all moral science. 

Whilst, then, we might search in vain, through the Bible, 
for any systematic science, such as we find in our books of 
chemistry or physics, still we may find there the elements of 
the very highest science. We find indeed all the fundamental 



OF THE BIBLE. 331 

facts and principles of, at least, four of the most important 
branches of universal science. These are revealed on the 
sacred pages, just as the true system of astronomy was revealed 
on the face of the sky before the days of Copernicus, and 
chemistry on all the objects of nature, long before the days of 
the alchemists. True science, you know, may exist in its ele- 
ments, long before there is any scientific eye to read it aright, 
or reduce those elements to scientific order. 

First, we have the sublime science of God himself, in all his 
perfections, in all his relations to all creatures ; which we call 
the science of Theology, the grand centre of universal science. 

Secondly, we have the great science of moral truth and vir- 
tue, of right and wrong in their relation to human duty, which 
embraces the broad field of Ethics, or Moral Philosophy. 

Thirdlv, we have the science of the soul itself, the human 
mind in its relation to truth and virtue, which is known by the 
terms, Psychology, Mental Philosophy, or Metaphysics in general. 

Fourthly, we have the science of law and government, the 
august and noble science of man collectively — man as a social 
being and a citizen ; which may be called Jurisprudence, Poli- 
tical Economy, or Legislative science ; which has been thus 
beautifully personified by Hooker : " Of law there can be no 
less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, 
her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and 
earth do her homage, the very least, as feeling her care, and 
the greatest as not exempt from her power. Both angels and 
men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in a 
different sort and name, yet all with one uniform consent, ad- 
mire her as the mother of their peace and joy." 

Now these four great branches of human know^ledge, which 
agree in this, that they are all founded upon moral evidence^ 



332 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

and all relate more or less to moral truth, are as justly entitled 
to be called scientific, and constitute in fact, as regular 
sciences, as any of those branches which we call natural o^ 
physical. Theology is as truly a science as chemistry, and 
Ethics as geology. And all of these great sciences of God and 
the soul, of truth and duty, are written in the Bible, just as the 
physical sciences are written in the great volume of nature. 
Upon all these vast and important fields of scientific inquiry, 
the word of God has shed a truer and a brighter light than 
all other books, and oracles, and schools of philosophy, of 
ancient or modern times. In speaking of the science of the 
Bible, therefore, we must ever bear in mind, that whatever of 
scientific truth it contains, is found there, not in logical classi- 
fied forms, but in its original essential elements ; not as geology 
and astronomy are found in the text-books of the schools, but as 
geology and astronomy are found in the field-books of the earth 
and heavens. We gather up these facts and principles, these scat- 
tered materials of science, and apply to them the process of 
interpretation, classification, and inductive reasoning, and thus 
educe the grand sciences of Theology, Ethics, Psychology, and 
Civil Jurisprudence. The method by which this is done, is as 
truly Baconian, and the result of it as truly scientific, as that 
which was pursued by Newton in the '^ Principia,^' or La Place 
in the '^Mecanique Celeste,^^ or Humboldt in the '' Cosmos.'^ 

In these four kindred branches of universal science. Theolog- 
ical, Ethical, Psychological, and Legislative, the Bible has been 
the great text-book and storehouse to all modern nations. It 
has not only supplanted all the systems of antiquity, but it has 
successfully driven every opposing modern system from the 
field, and now it reigns without a rival over the whole realm of 
Christendom. 



OF THE BIBLE. 833 

The Mosaic code, modified by the new law of the gospel, is 
the basis of all the jurisprudence and legislation of the present 
civilized world. And except in the departments of commercial, 
maritime, and international law, which, from the peculiar char- 
acter of the Hebrew Commonwealth, had not been contem- 
plated in the Mosaic code, the world has not added much to 
its original stock, nor much improved on its Scripture model. 
In theology, the science of the Supreme Being, there is, of 
course, no other authority known to civilized nations, but the 
Bible. For even what is called Natural Theology, was a great 
deep of darkness and confusion, until this surer word of revela- 
tion came, to call light out of darkness, and order out of chaos. 
The same is true of all moral or ethical science. Our existing 
books and systems, so far as they have any claim to scientific 
truth, are all founded upon the Sacred Scriptures. Aud as to 
Psychology, or the philosophy of the human mind, it is obvious 
that, whilst all the ancient writers have sunk into oblivion, all 
the modern, from Locke to the present day, have ended very 
nearly at the point where they began, and that is just where the 
Bible left the subject so long ago. 

By this, we do not mean to say that the Bible has anywhere 
given us a treatise on the human understanding, as Locke and 
Reid, Stewart and Cousin, have done ; but only that the Bi- 
ble has furnished the best materials for this and other kindred 
sciences : first, because the Bible, being inspired of God for 
the purpose, has had a deeper insight into human nature than 
any other oracle, and has given us the truest, fullest represen- 
tation of man in all his moods, and of man^s mind in all its 
exercises, which the world has yet seen. It was to be expected 
that a book from. God and a book on the soul, would tell us 
most, both about God and the soul. 



334 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

The Bible has held the mirror up to nature with an infallible 
and unsparing hand, and has reflected back to us a true image 
of ourselves, which we may study at our leisure ; just as we 
might study the same thing in Shakspeare. And this will 
serve to illustrate our meaning. Who does not know that 
a very good and true, and even full, philosophy of the human 
mind might be educed from the writings of the bard of Avon ? 
Why so ? Because he too held the mirror up to nature, long 
enough and steadily enough, to catch a true picture of the 
workings of the soul, in all its moods and exercises. Even so, 
but infinitely better, is the true philosophy of the whole inner 
man revealed to us in the perfect mirror of God^s word, not as 
a science, but as the constituent elements of science. 

In this grand department, then, of the moral or spiritual 
sciences, we claim for the Bible, and it is a claim which we 
trust you are fully prepared to indorse, that it has given us the 
only true and perfect theology in the world ; that it has given 
us the only safe and solid foundation for virtue and ethical phi- 
losophy ; that instructing us as to the origin, nature, aim, and 
destiny of the soul, it has given us the only sure and settled 
psychology ; and that, coming with authority from God, and 
the sanctions of a future state, it has unfolded all the great 
fundamental principles of human government, legislation and 
jurisprudence. 



III. THE BIBLE ON PHYSICAL SCIENCE FIRST CHARACTERISTIC. 

But leaving now these broad fields of science, to the cultiva- 
tion of which the Bible has contributed so much, let us pass to 
the contemplation of those for which directly it has done so lit- 



OF THE BIBLE. 335 

tie. Let us consider the relation in which the Bible stands to 
the physical sciences, which constitute the peculiar glorj of 
our modern philosophy. It is in this direction, that the genius 
of the age in which we live is bending all its steps, and taxing 
all its mighty energies. And it is in this quarter, if anywhere, 
that the respective friends of science and the Bible, are in dan- 
ger of misunderstanding and collision. Here, on the field of 
material nature, where science now seems to be the strongest, 
and the most confident of her strength, some, perhaps, without 
due reflection, might be ready to think the Bible will be found 
weakest and most vulnerable. And truly, for every educated 
man, we know not a subject of wider interest, and greater 
practical importance, than the clearing up of this relation, be- 
tween the Bible and physical science. Let us now endeavor 
to point out some of the distinctive landmarks. 

And here, the first fact that arrests attention, is the remark- 
able reticency of the Bible on the whole subject of physical 
science — its dignified reserve and taciturnity — its forbearance to 
philosophize — its profound, and, as we may say, most impres- 
sive silence, on all the questions and theories of natural scien(?e. 

The wonder is not that the sacred writers have given us 
nothing as to the true theory of the universe ; for that they 
could not know without a special revelation, and it was no 
part of Divine inspiration to reveal it ; but the surpassing 
wonder is, that they should have abstained from giving us any 
thing that is false — abstained from giving any theory at all. 

For whilst they were writing the Bible, the world was full 
of all sorts of systems and philosophies ; full of magicians and 
astrologers and theorizers about the heavens and the earth ; 
full of cosmogonists, and fabled oracles, and pretended divin- 
ities, peopling all the woods, and fields, and waters. And yet, 



33 G SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 



the sacred writers have steered their way through all these 
wonders of the times, and have not in a single line, committed 
themselves to one of the multiplied absurdities, that crowd 
all other contemporaneous writings. Amidst all these sophists 
and idolaters they stood, and wrote their sublime history, in 
such a way, that the pure current of their narrative rolled on, 
from beginning to end, uncontaminated by any of the systems 
of four thousand years. 

This too they have done, while speakiug freely and fully, on 
all the diversified facts and phenomena of universal nature, as 
known to the ancients. But nowhere upon their pages is a 
single theory discussed, or even propounded, as to any part of 
the material universe ; and so profound and unbroken is this 
silence, that although men have been searching these pages for 
many centuries with the closest scrutiny, yet we are not aware 
that any line of them has ever led to the first scientific dis- 
covery on the one hand, or involved a single scientific blunder 
on the other. 

Nothing can well be more wonderful than this. When we 
co'Visider with what fullness and minuteness of detail, the Bible 
has described the chief objects of material nature, animate and 
inanimate, throughout the vast domain of the vegetable, ani- 
mal, mineral and atmospheric kingdoms — how freely and how 
frequently it has spoken of earth, air, water and fire — how it 
has spoken of the origin of the earth and heavens, the sun, 
moon, and stars, the thunder and lightning, heat and cold, day 
and night, summer and winter — how it has spoken of the tribes 
of men, the beasts of the forest, the birds of the air, the 
fishes of the sea, the plants of the field — spoken of everything 
that hath, and everything that hath not, breath — when we 
consider all this, must it not appear infinitely remarkable, that 



OF THE BIBLE. 337 

the sacred book has never committed itself to any of the ten 
thousand absurdities of antiquity, nor advanced a single phi- 
losophical dogma, which modern science has exploded ? 

" The Hebrew language," as used in the Old Testament, says 
Herder, *' contains more than two hundred and fifty distinct 
botanical terms." And yet the Bible does not teach any sys- ^ 
tem of Botany. It gives us no system of Astronomy, and yet 
it is constantly speaking of the heavenly bodies, from the sun 
shining in his strength, and rejoicing as a strong man to run a 
race, to the faintest star that peepeth through the eyelids of 
the evening twilight. It treats not of animal Physiology, and 
yet it describes the varied parts and functions of our *' fearfully 
and wonderfully made" animal frame, from the " blood which is 
the life thereof," to the very hairs of our heads. It has noth- 
ing to do with Geology as a science, and yet it tells of up- 
lifted floods, and heaving mountains, and rending rocks, and 
submerged continents, and is ever speaking of the hills and • 
waters in their endless phenomena. It contains no system of 
Zoology, and yet it describes all kinds of breathing things, from 
the leviathan of the seas, to the lion of the forest ; and from 
the lion down to the moth upon our garments. It makes no 
pretensions to a system of Natural History, and yet it contains 
accurate accounts, so far as they go, both of the flora and the 
fauna of all the ancient countries bordering the Mediterranean, 
from the cedar of Lebanon to the hysop on the wall, and from 
the ostrich of the desert to the sparrow that falleth to the 
ground. 

It gives us no explanation, no theory, no system, and scarce- 
ly any classification. But what is most remarkable, when it 
does classify, it is found to be correct. Without any apparent 
aid from science, it sometimes seems to hit upon an order 

15 



338 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

which the science of after ages approves. For example, when 
in the first chapter of Genesis, it gives us a series or classifica- 
tion of all the living creatures, that fill up the vast scale of 
existence, between man at the head and the invertebrate ani- 
mals at the foot, how wonderful is it that in its four divisions 
of beasts, birds, reptiles and fishes, it should have given us 
precisely that arrangement which our advanced modern 
science has proved to be the true order of nature. 

While however it gives us little classification on any subject, 
it gives us facts on almost all — facts and phenomena, true to 
life and nature, because attested by the senses of eye and 
ear witnesses, and then recorded by the pen of inspiration. It 
transmits its record of facts, leaving us to dispose of them as 
we may in the light of advancing knowledge ; just as the med- 
ical philosopher disposes of the facts which were observed and 
recorded by Hippocrates, in Greece, some two thousand years 
ago. 

Says an eminent British naturalist : " The intention of Scrip- 
ture is not scientific description ; yet, where we can now ascer- 
tain the true meaning of the text, the imagery drawn from na- 
tural history is always forcible^ correct and effective, even where 
it treats the subject under the conditions of the contemporary 
popular belief." And one of our ablest American authorities, 
Lieutenant Maury, is reported to have remarked recently 
in a public lecture, that "m his investigations of science, 
he had always found that whenever he could meet with any- 
thing in the Bible on the subject, it afforded him a firm plat- 
form." 

Now few persons are aware of the frequency and fullness 
with which the Bible has spoken on many of the visible phe- 
nomena of the natural world. For instance, unusual as such 



OF THE BIBLE. 339 

words would seem to be, and remote from its common topics, it 
has mentioned '^ snow " and '* frost," in more than thirty pas- 
sages, and the " stars " in more than forty. But whenever it 
has spoken, whether little or much, its statements are remarkable 
alike for their accuracy as to facts, and their freedom from any 
thing like theorizing. 

You know how full the Bible is, of references and allusions 
to the healing art ; how it describes diseases and the remedies 
for disease ; how it speaks of physicians and apothecaries, and 
embalmers from the days of Moses down to Him, who was the 
great physician of souls. Yet, has it uttered no oracle, com- 
mitted itself to no dogma, as to any system or science of med- 
icine. This is indeed remarkable, when we remember its con- 
stant reference to the leprosy and other diseases and their 
cures during an authorship of fifteen hundred years, and a his- 
tory of four thousand. 

And here we may be allowed to mention a singular and cu- 
rious fact which has not often been noticed. It is this : al- 
though the Bible speaks of so many diseases, and remedies for 
disease — so many outward applications for the body in dicease, 
such as the washings and sprinklings for the leprosy, the balm 
of Gilead, the plaster of figs in Hezekiah's case, the oil and 
wine of the good Samaritan, the water and clay of our Sa- 
Yiour's miraculous cures, and even the leaves of the tree for the 
healing of the nations, still there is not one recorded case of 
a remedy for disease, taken internally, in all the book. No, not 
a single instance of any medicine being administered, that had 
to be swallowed. Strange as it may appear, to us who are ac- 
customed to live on medicine, from Genesis to Revelation, there 
is not one, unless that be an exception, in which the apostle 
prescribes to Timothy, a *' little wine for his stomachs 



340 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

sake and his often infirmities." And this, we think, is as far from 
establishing a precedent for medical practice, as it is from jus- 
tifying strong drink as a beverage. 

But to pass on ; these illustrations are sufficient to show 
with what fullness and minuteness the Bible has spoken of 
the facts of nature, without broaching any theory of nature. 

In view, then, of this fullness on all the visible phenomena of 
nature, how do you account for this profound silence — this ap- 
parently guarded reticency of the Bible, as to any theory or 
explanation of nature ? How is it that speaking so fully and 
dwelling so long in the midst of all the wonders of which our 
modern science treats, the Bible has never trespassed on one 
foot of the ground which modern science has claimed as her 
own ? 

To us there is but one solution. It is because there was 
a superhuman — even a Divine intelligence, ever present to 
superintend and to guide the pen of the sacred writers, as ac- 
tive and as potent in preserving them from what was false in 
science, as in giving them what was true in religion. So that 
the very silence of the Bible on all questions of physical science, 
may be regarded as one of its internal evidences — as an unan- 
swerable argument for its Divine inspiration. And on this point 
we may adopt the striking remarks of Trench in reference to 
another subject : *' Nor is it only what Scripture says, but its 
very silence which is instructive for us. It was said by one 
wise man of another, that more might be learned from his 
questions, than from another man's answers. With yet higher 
truth might it be said, that the silence of Scripture is oftentimes 
more instructive than the speech of other books ; so that it has 
be.en likened to a dial, in which the shadow, as well as the light, 
informs us." 



OF THE BIBLE. 341 

We are told in the proverbs of Solomon, that "it is the 
glory of God lo conceal a thing," — that, ''a fool uttereth all 
his mind, but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards." And 
so, the Bible seems everywhere to convey the impression, that 
it has not uttered all its mind, and that, so far from exhausting 
its knowledge, it might have told us infinitely more than it has 
seen fit to do. And well would it be for the world, if men 
would imitate the example, at least so far as not to utter their 
judgments on any and every question of science and religion, 
before they have had the time or the means for examination. 
The part of wisdom is to hold our judgment in abeyance on all 
unexamined questions of learning, and like the sacred writers, 
always know a little more than we appear to know, leaving 
something to be found out *' afterwards." It would save us 
from many a vain delusion, and " many a foolish notion." 



rV. SECOND SCIENTIFIC CHARACTERISTIC. 

This brings us to notice another remarkable feature of the 
Bible, in its relation to the natural sciences ; showing us the 
way, by which it has steered so clear of all theories and all 
absurdities on these great subjects. It is this ; that the sacred 
writers have uniformly spoken of the phenomena of nature, 
according to the usual language of men, in their daily inter- 
course. They have spoken of nature, according to the appear- 
ances of nature, and never in the vocabulary of science. And 
the notable thing is, that they are as free from the technicalities 
of ancient, as of modern science. They have taught nothing, 
they have written nothing, in the language of the schools, — 
not even ethics, not even theology. They always speak, God 



34:2 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

liimself always speaks, after the manner of men, in the ordinary 
phraseology of life. As well observed by Gaussen, with them 
the sun rises, the sun sets, the sun moves, the sun stops, the 
earth remains firm, as it seems to do. All things are spoken 
of precisely as they appear to the senses. 

But here an objection has been raised. It hap been asked : 
*' Why did not the Creator so inspire the sacred historians, as 
to make them speak in the vocabulary of true science, and make 
them know, or at least appear to know, before we did, the true 
theory of the universe, the principle of gravitation, the size and 
distances of the heavenly bodies, the rotary motion of our 
globe, its periodical revolution, and the relative immobility of 
the sun !" 

Now, you will perceive, that this question just resolves it- 
self into another ; viz. *' Why did not God give a revelation to 
teach us the physical sciences ?" And to this, it is a sufficient 
answer to say, that he wisely chose, that we should exercise 
onr minds in learning them, from the great book of nature, 
where he had written them all at the beginning. There was 
no need of a new revdation to teach science, when in the ample 
scrolls of nature, men already had a revelation, which has in 
fact been found all-suSicient. 

But, suppose the sacred writers had been made to speak in a 
language contrary to appearances, so as to suit the vocabulary 
of our most advanced sciences. What then ? How would the 
whole ancient world, in their ignorance of the experimental 
facts of science, have understood this prophetic language* of 
science ? We shall presently see, that they had, in the Bible, 
some remarkable expressions of this very kind, which they did 
not, and could not understand, for this very reason, that they 
had no means of verifying them experimentally. Unable to 



OF THE BIBLE. 343 

appreciate those which were given, what benefit could they 
have derived from having more ? That which would appear 
beautiful and instructive to us, in the light of our experimental 
philosophy, would have been a dead letter to them. And no 
man, before the days of Copernicus, would have been able to 
decipher the record, and tell what the letter meant. 

No ; God hath wisely chosen the universal language of 
appearances, as the vehicle of a revelation intended for all men. 
Because the appearances of nature are, from generation to 
generation, the same ; whilst the vocabulary of science is con- 
stantly changing. The stars shine, just as they did centuries 
ago : the winds blow, the rains descend, the waters roar now, 
as they did then. The whole face of the earth and heavens, 
wears about the same aspect to our eyes, that it wore in the 
eyes of Abraham and Job, Methuselah and Noah. 

Hence the language of appearances, which in all ages is the 
language of daily intercourse, and always too the language of 
poetry, is the most certain, intelligible, and permanent lan- 
guage in the world. But as physical science, from its very 
nature, must be always progressive ; and as our present ad- 
vanced science is, after all, but an approximation to the truth ; 
so, its vocabulary is ever changing ; and if the Bible had spoken 
in the scientific dialect of our times, who can tell us, that this 
w^ould have suited the higher science of ages yet to come ? 

Moreover, as many of these sciences are yet in their infancy, 
some of them perhaps not yet born, whilst even the oldest are 
comparatively young, who can tell us, what would have been 
the proper stopping-place, had the sacred writers received a 
scientific inspiration ? As has been most significantly asked, 
w^ould their knowledge " have reached the point which Newtoa 
attained, or only the point where Copernicus stopped, or would 



34:4: SCIENCE AND THE SAGES :| 

it have extended over the heavens, as far as La Place and Her- 
schel have carried it V^ But in either case, it would have still 
remained incomplete and imperfect, 

No ; in the whole domain of the physical sciences, the pur- 
pose of Divine revelation was to give us, as a starting-point, 
the two stupendous truths, of a Divine Creator, and a Divine 
Providence over the universe, and leave all minor problems to 
stimulate the curiosity, and develop the energies of man's intel- 
lect. Hence God speaks to men, in the Bible, just as they 
speak to each other ; not like a philosopher teaching science to 
a class, but like a philosopher speaking to the children and 
servants of his household, or to his fellow philosopher in their 
common conversation. For you may observe, that in the ordi- 
nary intercourse of society, men of science themselves speak the 
language of appearances. 

This point has been forcibly presented by Professor Gaussen, 
in his work on the Inspiration of Scripture. 

'* Would men," says he, *' have had the Bible to speak like 
Sir Isaac Newton ? Would they forget, that if God should 
speak about scenes of nature — I do not say only as he sees it, 
but as the scientific men of future ages will see it — then the 
great Newton himself had understood nothing of it. Besides, 
even the most advanced language of science is not yet, and 
never will be, after all, anything more than the language of 
appearances. That which we call reality, is still itself only an 
appearance relatively to a more elevated reality, and a more 
profound analysis. And who can tell us where this analysis is 
to stop ? The expression of appearances, provided it be exact, 
is then among men, a language philosophically correct ; and 
is that which the Scriptures ought to have adopted." 

** Would you," says he, ^^have the Bible speak of the 



OF THE BIBLE. 345 

scenes of nature otherwise than as we speak of them to one 
another, in our domestic or social intercourse ? — otherwise 
even, than as the learned themselves speak of them to one 
another ? When Sir John Herschell asks his servants to send 
some one to awake him exactly at midnight, for the passage of 
some star over his meridian lens, does he think himself obliged 
to speak to them of the earth, of her rotation, and of the 
moment, when she shall have brought their nadir into the 
plane of her orbit ? I think not. And if you ever heard 
him converse, in the Observatory of Greenwich, with the 
learned Airy, you would see, that even in this sanctuary of 
science, the habitual language of these astronomers is still just 
like that of the Scriptures. For them the stars rise, the equi- 
noxes recede, the planets advance and are accelerated, stop, 
retrograde. Would you then have Moses speak to all the gen- 
erations of men, in a language more scientific than that of La 
Place, Arago, and Newton ?" 

It is delightful too to find scientific men, especially the scienti- 
fic men of our own generation, often recurring to the old fami- 
liar phraseology of the Bible when they would give utterance to 
some of their sublimest conceptions. Never has science paid 
to revelation a more graceful and heartfelt tribute than that 
which has been offered at her shrine by the men of this 
nineteenth century, as in their survey of the wonderful works 
of God, they have given vent to their emotions in the very 
words of God. Every reader of Maury's Physical Geography 
of the Sea must have been struck with this. This, too, con- 
stitutes one of the many charms of Dr. Kane's graphic volumes. 

Isolated for two dreary winters, and shut up in his little ice- 
bound isle of life, almost as effectually as if he and his heroic band 
had become inhabitants of another world, how did he feel the 

15* 



346 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

overiDowering grandeur jQf the God of Inspiration. ^' I have trod- 
den the deck and the floes, when the life of earth seemed sus- 
pended, its movements, its sounds, its colorings, its compan- 
ionships ; and as I looked on the radiant hemisphere, circling 
above me, as if rendering worship to the unseen centre of 
light, I have ejaculated in humility of spirit, ' Lord, what is 
man, that thou art mindful of him V '' 



V. — THE THIRD CHARACTERISTIC. 

But we come now to notice, more fully, another still more 
remarkable characteristic of the Bible, in its relation to the 
progress of the physical sciences. It is one which has been, in 
part, referred to already. It is the wonderful facility, with 
which the language of the Bible, in certain pregnant expres- 
sions, adjusts itself to every new scientific discovery, and har- 
monizes with every successive stage of scientific advancement. 
After all the gigantic strides which she has made, and is still 
making, science has found it impossible to leave th^ Bible be- 
hind. However deep she has dug into the surface of the 
earth, and however high she has climbed to build her nest 
among the stars, she soon finds that the Bible is close at her 
side. Nay, more ; when she has taken the wings of the morn- 
ing, and said, I will dwell alone in the uttermost parts of the 
sea, and when she has found some far-off island, in some remote 
nook and corner of the universe, which she is about to call her 
own, by the right of prior discovery, she finds, to her amaze- 
ment, that the Bible has been there before her — the pioneer 
and the very prophet of discovery ! 

As each new world of wonder has risen upon our view, and 



OF THE BIBLE. 347 

each grand discovery has added its light tc the firmament of 
our science, the language of the Bible has opened to receive it, 
as if endued with the elasticity of an endless life, and the ex- 
pansive power of an infinite intelligence. For three hundred 
years past, but more especially during the last hundred, the 
spirit of philosophical inquiry has been knocking at every door 
in the universe, pushing her keen-eyed look of discovery, and 
her bold fing-ers of experiment, into every field of the heavens 
above, and every recess of the earth and ocean beneath ; and 
from all these — from the rocks and caves of the mountains, 
from the depths of the sea, from the torrid and frigid zones, from 
every buried generation of the dead, from every realm of ani- 
mated nature, and from every region of immensity, she has been 
bringing home her spoils, her trophies of power, her treasures of 
wealth and wisdom, her monuments of art and industry, to beauti- 
fy and adorn her temple — the crystal palace of universal science, 
enriched by the contributions of all lands and of all worlds. 

And still the language of the Bible, so far from becoming 
antiquated and obsolete, falls in and harmonizes, with all this 
advancement, precisely as if it had been made to meet the 
case, and had from the beginning, anticipated all the brilliant 
discoveries and inventions of modern times. In a multitude of 
passages, its pregnant, oracular words, enigmatical and dark 
at first, have become luminous with the progress of time. 
They have exactly reversed the aspect of the fiery pillar that 
separated the camp of Israel from the Egyptians — they have 
been dark to those that went before, but radiant as the light of 
heaven to all who have come after. They have been rendered 
clearer and clearer by the progress of science, precisely as 
the prophecies obscure before their fulfillment, have been set in a 
clear light by the onward course of history. Yes, the Bible^ 



348 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

though speaking the language of appearances, abounds in these 
pregnant expressions, whose full force and beauty lay hidden 
on the bosom of its narrative for thousands of years ; whose 
full force and beauty were not perceived even by the men who 
wrote them ; indeed, never could have been perceived without 
the light of modern science ; and, perhaps are not even yet un- 
derstood as they will be, by the men of future ages, who shall 
be blest with a more perfect science. We hold, that in 
these expressions, the language of the Bible has been, in a 
measure, prophetical of all the wonders which modern science 
has achieved. And there are pages in this venerable book, 
whose meaning has been developed, verified, and fulfilled, by 
the progress of scientific discovery, as truly and as signally, 
as any of its special predictions, by the events of history. Pro- 
phetically, it contains the history of all science, as it does the 
history of all the world. 

To make good this assertion, let us select a few illustrations. 
For example, see how the first chapter of Genesis has enlarged 
itself to the vast compass of the geological ages, prior to the 
existence of man. A chapter swells into a volume ; a single 
verse into the cosmogony of the universe. Does geology stretch 
our vision backward, across the countless ages of the past, as 
the telescope had already stretched it, over the trackless fields 
of immensity ? Does it call for myriads of years, in which 
whole families and tribes of plants and animals sprung into 
existence, flourished for a season, and then passed away from 
the earth, before man appeared upon the stage ? This opening 
chapter of inspiration admits it all, covers it all, even seems to 
have anticipated it all. 

Geology traces man back to the age to which the Bible 
refers him, and not one step farther ; both agree, that it was 



OF THE BIBLE. 349 

late in the era of creation, before he commenced his wonderful ■ 
career. Geology and Moses, also unite in tracing the earth 
itself, back to the very same point — to *' the beginning,*^ and 
the creating hand of Omnipotence. Geology does not tell us 
how long ago, that first beginning was ; nor does Moses. But 
geology and Moses are agreed in this — that there was a 
begrinninor somewhere — a Divine creation out of nothino;. The 
Bible is not any more sparing of time, than is geology. It 
will allow all the time that science asks for, short of eternity ; 
and geology herself will not allow that. Against the self-exis- 
tence, or eternity of the material universe, science shuts the 
door as effectually as the Bible has done. All the vast epochs 
of organic life, whose history geology has discovered in the 
earth's strata, graven as with an iron pen, and chronicled in 
the rocks forever — all the teeming domains of vegetable and 
animal existence, filling up those periods, whose perished forms, 
so long buried, have recently been disentombed — all these 
geology herself has traced to the hand of a Divine Author ; 
and they serve the double purpose of magnifying the glory of 
the Creator, while they illustrate the beauty and wisdom and 
intelligence of this venerable book. 

Thus, in the light of geological science, we behold wondrous 
things in God's word, which otherwise we should never have 
known. Thus has science become an interpreter of revelation, 
making its words assume a new and nobler import, its facts a 
larger and more profound significance. In the light of geologi- 
cal discovery, how do all those passages rise into beauty and 
grandeur, which connect the origin of the earth with water on 
the one hand, and its destruction with fire on the other i They 
seem, thus interpreted, to set before us three grand geological 
cycles ; first, the " earth standing out of the water, and in the 
water '' — the period of the pre-Adamic world ; next the 



350 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

*' heavens and the earth, which are now kept in store, reserved 
unto fire against the daj of judgment " — the present order of 
existence ; and then the last grand era of a ^' new heavens and 
a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness " — the consumma- 
tion of all things. In view of such revelations, might we not 
even appropriate the exclamation of an apostle on another 
subject ; — " Oh the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom 
and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, 
and his ways past finding out !" 

But, in the light of astronomical science, we have a still 
more remarkable illustration of the manner, in which the lan- 
guage of the Bible seems to have comprehended and antici- 
pated all our discoveries. For example, hear what the Bible 
says, as to the shape and position of the earth. It was not 
known to have spoken on that subject at all, until a true astro- 
nomy gave us a light, by which to read understandingly, what 
it had said. And doubtless, there are many other subjects, on 
which it has given utterances, which we have not yet light 
enough to read aright ; which we now see, as through a glass 
darkly, but which a larger knowledge, hereafter, will enable us 
to see with open vision. But what has it said about the shape 
and position of the earth ? 

Says the book of Job, *^ He stretcheth out the north over the 
empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." Again, 
'* He hath compassed (or encircled) the waters with bounds, 
until the day and night come to an end." Says Solomon, _ 
** When he prepared the heavens, I (wisdom) was there ; when 
he set a compass upon the face of the deep ;" that is a *^ circle," 
for such is the meaning of the word, '^ compass," throughout 
the Bible. Says Isaiah, speaking of the Almighty, ** He 
Bitteth upon the circle of the earth." 

How wonderful is this language ! As remarked by another, 



OF THE BIBLE. 351 

it might be taken as a fit motto for the last treatise on astro- 
nomy, or an inscription for Lord Rosse^s telescope, or Professor 
Mitchell's observatory. Did Job, Solomon, and Isaiah, indeed 
know, that the earth was a circle — a sphere suspended over the 
empty place — hung up, on nothing, in the fields of space ? If 
so, they were far in advance of all the men of their times, and 
they had more knowledge of astronomy, than the world has 
ever given them credit for. But if not, then what a proof is 
this, of an infinite intelligence, pervading their thoughts, and 
so shaping their words, as to anticipate the discoveries of our 
times, without shocking the prejudices of their own ! 

Again : of the fact that the sacred writers have been in ad- 
vance of the world and wiser than all their translators, we have a 
striking illustration, in the use of our word *' firmament," to de- 
note the starry heavens. We get the word, in this usage, from 
" firmamentum " of the Latin version, and that introduces it as an 
exact synonym for *'stereoma" of the Greek Septuagint, both 
of which mean something hard, solid, firm. But when we go 
back to the old Hebrew of Moses, we find that the original 
word, which, as Gaussen tells us, is seventeen times used to de- 
note what we call the firmament, or starry heavens, has another 
meaning besides that of hardness and solidity ; it means also 
the expanse, the vacant place, the ether, the far-reaching re- 
gion, or immensity. Why, then, did the Greek and Latin trans- 
lators use only stereoma and firmamentum to describe the sky ? 
Because, in their utter ignorance of the true astronomy, they did 
not know as much about the nature of the sky as Moses did, or 
rather, as that infinite intelligence which guided the pen of 
Moses. And thus, you perceive, that with all our science, we 
still follow these ancient versions, and thus we are constantly 
speaking, like Addison, of the ** spacious firmament on high," 



352 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

in a language far less philosophical than that which Moses used, 
when he called it '^ rakea," the expanse, the out-spread empty 
space. But we all know the sky is not hard, and does not even 
appear hard, though we call it the firmament, or firm place. 
Even so, let us not hold the inspired writers responsible for as- 
serting or believing it to be hard, because their unscientific 
translators have made them call it " stereoma '^ and '^ firmamen- 
tum," Future ages, we trust, will not hold us responsible for 
beUeving it hard, because we have been made to call it the 
firmament. 

Still further. In nothing has the triumph of modern science 
been more signal than in its enlargement, so to speak, of all the 
boundaries of the senses — its revelation to us, of a universe, out- 
side of all that is seen by the naked eye, which appears abso- 
lutely illimitable, well-nigh infinite. Whilst geology has been 
opening to us, worlds on worlds in the cycles of the past, the 
telescope has been disclosing worlds without number, in the un- 
trodden fields of immensity, and the microscope bringing to 
light new worlds of wonder, in everything around us and be- 
neath us. On the one hand, the vast magnitudes and distances 
of the material universe, made known by the telescope, have 
seemed to dwarf man himself into an insect, an atom unworthy 
of his Maker^s care, much more unworthy of his love, as dis- 
played in the gospel. But, on the other hand, the millions of 
worlds beneath us, as revealed by the microscope, all teeming 
with life, have magnified man again, and raised him to his old 
dominion, as lord of all the creatures. All that he has been 
losing, in the scale of dignity, by the telescope, he has been 
gaining by the microscope. And as his own intellect has been 
the discoverer in both cases, so all that he has been losing, as 
a mortal, he has been gaining, as an immortal, by these revela- 



OF THE BIBLE. 353 

tions. Does mortal man dwindle into comparative insignificance 
before the vastness of the material universe, as if, at last, matter 
had triumphed over mind ? That very triumph is itself the 
proof of the majesty and the victory of the human mind. Be- 
cause, it is man's mind which hath thus measured and mastered 
a universe, that so o'er-masters him. 

And does man appear to dwindle into nothing as geology 
brings to light those vast teeming creations, and gigantic my- 
riad forms of life that preceded him on the stage of existence ? 
Geology herself shall reassert his dignity, for she never ceases 
to hold him up as the grand terminal head and apex of all these 
foregoing creations. Hugh Miller, in his last work, the " Testi- 
mony of the Rocks," says : " The knowledge of the geologist 
ascends no higher than man. He sees all nature in the pre- 
Adamic past, pointing with prophetic finger towards him. The 
long vista, opened up by his science, closes with the deputed 
lord of creation, with man as he at present exists ; and when, 
casting himself full upon revelation, the veil is drawn aside, and 
an infinitelv o-rander vista stretches out before him into the future, 
he sees man — no longer, however, the natural, but the Divine 
man — occupying what is at once its terminal point and its 
highest apex." 

And then, after quoting two of the highest living authorities 
on the subject. Professors Owen and Agassiz, to the effect, that 
*' man was the archetypal idea in the Divine mind," and the 
" end towards which all the animal creation has tended from 
the first appearance of the first Palaeozoic fishes," he goes 
on to remark : '' These surely are extraordinary deductions. 
* In thy book,' says the Psalmist, ^ all my members were writ- 
ten, which, in continuance, were fashioned, when, as yet, there 
was none of them.' And here is natural science, by the voice 



354 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

of two of its most distinguislied professors, saying exactly the 
same thing." 

Our latest science, then, leaves man just where she found 
him, even where the Bible placed him at the beginning, a little 
higher than the beasts that perish, a little lower than the an 
gels — ^' the sum total of all the animals of earth," and yet the 
image of God in the flesh. 

" Distinguished link in being's endless chain, 
Midway from nothing to the Deity, 
A worm, a God." 

How wonderful ! how profound ! how prophetic ! how true 
to science ! The Bible has not placed man where the telescope 
alone would have placed him, nor where the microscope alone 
would have placed him ; but where the two together have 
placed him, and where geology places him — at the head of the 
visible creation, at the foot of the Divine throne. 



VI. ^ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 

We have said, that modern scientific discoveries have revealed 
a range of thought, a force and beauty of expression, in the 
Scriptures, which never had been appreciated before, and never 
could have been fully appreciated without them. Would you 
have a practical proof of this ? Go and read a treatise on as- 
tronomy, or listen to a course of popular lectures on the starry 
heavens, until conception fails, and imagination droops her 
wing, in the attempt to grasp the grandeur of the material 
universe : and then, when lost and bewildered by the contem- 
plation, and without words to express your emotion, just open 



OF THE BIBLE. 355 

the Bible at the book of Job, and read his sublime descrip- 
tions of the manifold works of God ; and see how those grand 
questionings and responses will have widened out to meet the 
dimensions of your widest thoughts ; ** Canst thou, by search- 
ing, find out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto 
perfection ? It is as high as heaven ; what canst thou .do ? 
deeper than hell ; what canst thou know ? The measure there- 
of is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea." How 
is it, that the words of the patriarch express our feelings, when 
gazing on the wonders of the universe in the light of science, 
better than we can express them ourselves ? And how is it, 
that we can see even more force and grandeur in the patriarch's 
words than he ever saw himself? 

Or, if you please, listen to the sweet Psalmist of Israel, ex- 
claiming, in wonder, as Jehovah telleth the number of the 
stars, calleth them all by their names, and leadeth out their 
hosts : '^ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me ; it is high, 
I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, 
or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? If I ascend up into 
heaven, thou art there ; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou 
art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the 
uttermost parts of the sea : Even there shall thy hand lead me, 
and thy right hand shall hold me.'' As a description of the 
omnipresence of the Deity, is it not plain that this language as- 
sumes a wider raoge, and sweeps the chords of a higher, grander 
harmony in our hearts, than it could have done in the hearts 
of David's contemporaries ? And yet, doubtless, it was beauti- 
ful and sublime to them. But to us, there is a meaning in the 
words, as much broader than the words themselves, as the uni- 
verse of modern astronomy is broader than the little world of 
the ancients. It is as if the new-discovered works of God had 



356 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

poured fresh light upon the words of God, and found tlieir own 
grandeur all reflected back again. 

Take another example from the eighth Psalm : '* When 1 
consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the 
stars, which thou hast ordained : What is man, that thou art 
miffdful of him ? and the son of man that thou visitest him ? For 
thou hast made him a little lower than the angels : and hast 
crowned him with glory and honor." And what is this ? It is 
an expression of wonder at the great condescension of God in 
his exaltation of man. It is in the form of an argument drawn 
from the littleness and insignificance of man, as contrasted with 
the magnitude and glory of the starry heavens. And the wl^iole 
force of the argument lies in the greatness of the contrast. 

But if that was a wonderful contrast in David's times, what 
is it now ? If that was an argument of power and beauty for 
the Divine condescension, to a man looking at the heavens, by 
niglit, with the naked eye, what an argument is it to one look- 
ing at them through the telescope I Oh ! to what an immeasur- 
able height and depth and length and breath, is the Divine con- 
descension magnified now, in view of the littleness of man and the 
greatness of these telescopic heavens ! ^' When I consider thy 
heavens — in all their vast extent, in all their wealth of magnifi- 
cence and glory — what is man, that Thou art mindful of him !'' 

Did David understand astronomy ? Did he know and appre- 
ciate the sublime import of these words, and the full force of this 
great argument for the condescension of God ? " The jDoint of 
view he thus assumes," says Gilfillan, ^* is inexplicable, except 
on the supposition of his entertaining an approximately true 
notion of the magnitude of those starry globes. If they had 
appeared to him only a few hundred bright spangles on the 
black robe of night, what was there in them so to have dwarfed 



OF THE BIBLE. 357 

the earth with its vast expanse and teeming population ?" 
There is force in the question ; but we think there is another 
and better explanation. 'Tis not that David understood astro- 
nomy, even approximately ; but, that He, who inspired David's 
mind and guided his pen, understood it, and caused him to write 
in a language which should become more and more luminous 
with the progress of ages. 

But- we may allow a skeptic here to select his own ground. 
Either David did, or he did not understand, something of the 
vastness of the material heavens. If he did, then he had a 
knowledge of astronomy, utterly unknown to all the ancient 
world besides. And how will the skeptic account for that 
knowledge, without a Divine revelation ? But if he did not ; 
then he spoke in a language which was as far in advance of his 
knowledge, as the Coper nican astronomy is in advance of the 
Egyptian or Chaldean astrology. And how will the skeptic ac- 
count for that without a divine inspiration ? To us there is but 
one solution ; there is an intelligence in the words of the Bible, 
higher than the words themselves, because they are God's words. 

Take one more example of an earlier date. We are told 
that the Almighty brought Abraham forth abroad and said — 
*' Look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to 
number them ;" and he said unto him, *' So shall thy seed 
be.'' Again he said, '' I will multiply thy seed as the stars 
of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore." 

Long afterwards, Jeremiah uses similar language, saying — 
*' As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand 
of the sea measured ; so will I multiply the seed of David." The 
same metaphor is used again in the book of Nehemiah and in 
the epistle to the Hebrews ; showing that it was a favorite one 
with the sacred writers. 



358 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

Now you will observe, in all these passages, that the Bible 
speaks of the stars precisely as modern science speaks of 
them : that is, as innumerable, multitudinous as the sands 
of the sea-shore. But how did the sacred writers know 
without the telescope, that the stars were numberless like 
the grains of sand ? Would we have known it without the teles- 
cope ? Did the world in fact know it before there was any tel- 
escope ? The ancient catalogues of Hipparchus and Ptolemy 
set down the whole number of the stars, at one thousand and 
twenty-six. And our own astronomers tell us, that in the 
clearest night, the naked eye can see only eleven hundred 
and sixty, whilst all that are visible to one watching all night 
at the equator, only amount to about three thousand. Are 
we then to suppose the Almighty to promise Abraham, merely 
that his posterity should equal in multitude, the one thousand 
stars, more or less, which he could see and count in a clear 
night ? If so, how would such a figure comport with the idea 
of a great nation, in which all other nations should be blest ? 
And if so, how could he associate this limited number of the 
stars, with the countless sands of the sea-shore ? If his seed 
should be like the stars and like the sands in number ; then 
must not the stars be numberless like the sands ? Things that 
are equal to the same you know are equal to one another. — 
Whether Abraham drew that conclusion or not, that con- 
clusion is legitimate. 

Thus, you see, we are shut up to the necessity of either gran- 
ting to the sacred writers a knowledge of the stars, such as the 
telescope alone has revealed to us, or ascribing to their words 
a higher import than they did themselves. In either case, whe- 
ther Abraham and Jeremiah knew, by logical inference from 
these Divine visions, and knew for the first time, that the 



OF THE BIBLE. 359 

stars like the sands were innumerable ; or whether these words 
of the Almighty, intentionally and prophetically comprehended 
this idea of innumerability without their comprehending it — be it 
either way, we do not see how any man can resist the convic- 
tion, that the book is an inspired revelation from God. If this 
is not a demonstration of its truth, we are at a loss to know 
what would constitute a demonstration. If this is not a demon- 
stration, we should like to know where the demonstration 

fails. 

Is it objected that, by a kind of optical illusion, the stars 

appear innumerable, even to us, as they do to every casual 
and superficial observer who has not watched them nightly ; 
and hence it was natural for the Bible to speak of them as it 
does of the sand, according to appearances ? The answer is, 
that we cannot suppose Abraham or Moses to have been either a 
casual or superficial observer. Living as they did in the age of 
** astrologers and star-gazers and prognosticators," living so 
much and so long in the open air, and leading a shepherd's life, 
we cannot suppose them ignorant of that astrology which con- 
stituted the chief study and the most ancient science of Egypt 
and Chaldea, and indeed of the whole nomadic world. With 
the names, places, motions and apparent numbers of the stars, 
they must have been almost as familiar as with the sheep of 
their flocks and the servants of their households. And yet, 
by comparing the stars to the sands, they have indicated a 
series, whose limit for multitude, neither the telescope nor the 
calculus of our astronomy has yet been able to reach. 

But to conclude these illustrations, is it not wojaderful, infin- 
itely wonderful, that ever since the days of Abraham, this book 
should have spoken of the stars, in a language which, while it 
has been more or less intelligible to all the intervening ages, is 



360 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

most intelligible to this age of astronomers — this age wljose 
skj-compelliug telescopes, stretching away into the depths of 
immensity, far as an angePs flight, have made all the nebulae of 
night to swarm with new worlds, until we behold a starry uni- 
verse upon which, if numbers can be written at all, they are 
numbers beyond all human computation ? In view of such won- 
drous revelations of science and the Bible, may we not with 
reverence even apply to this subject, the words of an apostle 
when speaking of the sufferings and glory of Christ ? That these 
holy men of old, searched what, or what manner of time, the 
spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified 
beforehand of these things, and the glory that should follow. 
In both cases, it would seem they spoke by revelation, they 
spoke prophetically ; and they sought diligently to know, 
without even finding out, the full extent of their own words. 

Such then is the Bible in its relation to the sciences, both 
moral and natural. We have seen how it contains all the fun- 
damental facts and principles of Theological and Ethical sci- 
ence. We have seen how it furnishes the best materials for all 
Legislative and Psychological science. We have seen, also, 
how it stands related to the modern physical sciences — silent 
as to all their theories, adjusting itself to all their discoveries, 
recording their phenomena as they appear to the senses, and in 
certain pregnant expressions, seeming to anticipate many of 
their most sublime and wonderful results. Such, and so glo- 
rious, is the science of the Bible. 

This characteristic of the Bible, has indeed attracted the 
notice of some of our scientific writers of the very highest 
authority, who have given illustrations of it in their pages. 

Lieutenant Maury, in his popular work, '' The Physical Geo- 
graphy of the Sea,'^ has the following passage — 



OF THE BIBLE. 361 

" The Bible frequently makes allusion to the laws of nature, 
their operation and effects. But such allusions are often so 
wrapped in the folds of the peculiar and graceful drapery with 
which its language is occasionally clothed, that the meaning, 
though peeping out from its thin covering all the while, yet lies 
in some sense, concealed, until the lights and revelations of 
science are thrown upon it ; then it bursts out and strikes us 
with the more force and beauty. As our knowledge of nature 
and her laws is increased, has our understanding of many pas- 
sages in the Bible been improved. The Bible called the earth 
' the round world ;^ yet for ages it was the most damnable 
heresy, for Christian men to say the world is round : and finally 
sailors circumnavigated the globe, proved the Bible to be right, 
and saved Christian men of science from the stake. ' Can'st 
thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades V Astronomers of the 
present day, if they have not answered this question, have 
thrown so much light upon it as to show, that if ever it be 
answered by man, he must consult the science of astronomy. 
It has been recently all but proved, that the earth and the sun, 
with their splendid retinue of comets, satellites and planets, are 
all in motion around some point or centre of attraction incon- 
ceivably remote, and that that point is in the direction of the 
star Alcyon, one of the Pleiades. Who but the astronomer 
then could tell their sweet influences ? And as for the general 
system of atmospherical circulation which I have been so long 
endeavoring to describe, the Bible tells it all in a single sen- 
tence, ' The wind goeth toward the south and turneth about 
unto the north, it whirleth about continually, and the wind 
returneth again according to his circuits !' " 

To this we may also add the high authority of Professor 
Dana, in his admirable article on *^ Science and the Bible" in a 

16 



362 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

recent number of the Bibliotheca Sacra. Speaking of the 
Mosaic account of the creation, he says, *' The first thought 
that strikes the scientific reader is the evidence of Divinity, not 
merely in the first verse of the record, and the successive fiats, 
but in the whole order of creation. There is so much that the 
most recent readings of science have for the first time explained, 
that the idea of man as the author becomes utterly incompre- 
hensible. By proving the record true, science pronounces it 
divine ; for who could have correctly narrated the secrets of 
eternity but God himself." 

Amongst other illustrations showing how an infinite mind 
must have guided the pen of the sacred writer, he remarks, 
" Man again would never have separated the creation of light 
so far from that of the sun, to us the source of light ; neither 
would he have conceived of the creation of the firmament, as 
that word is usually understood, and was understood by the 
Jews, without the stars as a part of its decoration. Moreover 
there is a.sublimity and system in the arrangement, and a far- 
reaching prophecy, to which philosophy could not have attained, 
however instructed." 

Hugh Miller and others have spoken of the '^ Geologic Pro- 
phecies," referring to those typical forms which, in an ever 
ascending scale, ran through all the creations of animal life prior 
to man's existence, and, as ^'shadows of better things to come," 
heralded and prepared the way before him. The thought is a 
grand one. But it is manifest, that these Geological Prophecies 
have waited long for an interpreter. However true, or intelli- 
gibly written upon the rocks, they have, in fact, been hidden 
from man through all past ages, and as it were, laid by for the 
special reading and exposition of the science of these latter 
days. Precisely so has it been, with these other Prophecies — 



OF THE BIBLE. 363 

these latent scientific prophecies or anticipations of the word 
of God, of which we have been speaking, which seem to have 
been so deeply imbedded in the sacred text, that the world has 
not seen them hitherto, nor indeed could see them now, were it 
not that our advancing science is revealing them. The Geo- 
logic Prophecies, though they might have been read, could not 
be understood till the fullness of the time had come. And it is 
only as the fullness of the time comes, in the brighter light of 
increasing scientific knowledge, that these grand old oracles of 
the Bible, so apparently simple but so marvellously pregnant 
with meaning, stand forth at once cleared of all erroneous 
human glosses, and vindicated as. the inspired testimonies of 
Jehovah. For long ages interpreted wrong, for other ages 
perhaps not interpreted at all, they come at last to the fullness 
of time, and find a true interpreter in a true science, and are at 
once known and read of all men, the more subhme and beauti- 
ful because they have been so long unrevealed. 



VII. THE SAGES OF THE BIBLE. 

But who, yon may be ready to ask, are the sages of the 
Bible ? We answer, all its writers ; the forty authors of its 
sixty-six different books are its sages, its wise men, its philoso- 
phers, although they have not boasted of the title. There is no 
one of them who is not more worthy of the name of sage, than 
any of the wise men of Greece, or the philosophers of Rome. 
To have written and published in Greece or Rome, any one of 
these sixty-six treatises which make up the Bible, would have 
immortalized Solon or Lycurgus, Aristotle or Plato, Socrates or 
Xenophon, Seneca or Cicero, Tacitus or Pliny. And if the 



364 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

authorship of a single one of the larger books could now be 
traced to the greatest of the classical writers, it is but little 
to say that it would more than double his present fame as a 
sage and philosopher. 

There is, however, a distinction here, among the sacred wri- 
ters. Moses is the great sage of jurisprudence and legislative 
science, standing in that department without a rival, at the head 
of the list. But Paul is just as great in another department ; 
standing as the unrivalled master of all theological learning. In 
ethics, Solomon stands confessedly at the head, as the great moral 
preacher and sage of the Old Testament : whilst in all that re- 
lates to the science of the soul, including its ethics, the sayings of 
Christ in the New Testament, reported by his followers, like 
those of Socrates, have given us more light than all the oracles 
of all the world besides. These four, Moses, Paul, Solomon 
and Jesus, stand respectively as the represeatatives of those 
four great branches of moral science, jurisprudence, theology, 
ethics and psychology, on which the Bible has spoken out with 
the authoritative voice of a teacher come from God. And what 
Milton has ascribed to them in one of these departments, is 
true of them and of their fellow teachers, in all the rest. 

■ " As men divinely taught, and better teaching 
The solid rules of civil government, 
In their majestic, unaffected style, 
Than all the oratory of Greece and Rome. 
In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt, 
What makes a nation happy and keeps it so." 

In physical science, which, as we have seen, the Bible does 
not profess to teach, although it has recorded facts and descrip- 
tions of universal nature, true to life, the palm of wisdom is 



OF THE BIBLE. 365 

divided between Job, David and Solomon. Each was a keen 
observer of nature. Each had an eye to admire and a heart to 
feel its grandeur and beauty. Each seems to have held daily 
and nightly communion with it. And each has given us admir- 
able descriptions, drawn from the scenery of the earth and hea- 
vens. 

For instance, did you ever read attentively the hundred and 
fourth Psalm, where the writer winds up a description of univer- 
sal nature, animate and inanimate, with the exclamation : ''0 
Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom hast thou made 
them all !" Even Humboldt, one of the least evangelical of all 
the great names of modern science, could not fail to admire it. 
Pronouncing it a picture of the entire Cosmos, he says : ^' We 
are astonished to find, in a lyrical poem of such a limited com- 
pass, the whole universe — the heavens and the earth — sketched 
with a few bold touches.'^ 

Did you ever read attentively the twenty-eighth chapter of 
Job, where, to everything in the earth, and under the earth, 
and above the earth, he puts that sublime question, which can 
find no response in the universe except in God : '' Whence com- 
eth wisdom, and where is the place of understanding ?" Kead 
it again and say, if any recorded saying of Socrates or any of 
the Grecian sages, is half so memorable or half so graphic, as 
the closing answer of the Almighty : ''Behold ! the fear of the 
Lord, that is wisdom ; and to depart from evil is understand- 
ing." • 

As for Solomon, he has a double title to the name of sage, 
lie was at once the great moral philosopher and the great natu- 
ralist of his times. Hear what the sacred historian says of him. 
*' And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding 
much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the 



3G6 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

sea-shore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all 
the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt, 
For he was wiser than all men : and his fame was in all nations 
round about. And he spake three thousand proverbs ; and his 
songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees, from the 
cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hysop that spring- 
eth out of the wall : he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and 
of creeping things, and of fishes/' Or, as the same things would 
be expressed in the language of our times, he was a botanist, 
zoologist, ornithologist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. He 
was, however, as truly a naturalist, and a sage of learning and 
wisdom, as he would have been with these high-sounding titles 
to his name ; and we must not allow the simple language of the 
Bible to detract from our estimate of the real greatness of its 
characters. 

Enough has been said to show that the writers of the Bible 
deserve the title of sage : enough also to show what sort of 
science is in the Bible, and what is not there. Be it much, or 
be it little, there is something else there — something nobler, 
something holier than any human science, which has made it 
the most attractive of all books, to the most scientific minds. 
There is something in it which at once separates and distinguishes 
it from every other book. For, as beautifully remarked by Dr. 
Hamilton, " the Bible, like Tabor, is a ' mountain apart ;' 
isolated, unique, peculiar ; and the farther up you get — the 
more acquainted you become with human books, and the more, 
alongside of them, you study the book of God — the more 
amazed will you be at its outstanding elevation, its world-topping 
preeminence." 

The greatest names that modern science can boast, from 
Bacon and Locke, Leibnitz and Newton, Pascal and Linnaeus^ 



OF THE BIBLE. 367 

to Davy and Herschel, Cuvier, Brewster and Miller, have yield- 
ed their profoundest homage to the Bible. It has been recent- 
ly stated, on good authority, that amongst all the scientific men 
of our country now living, there is scarcely one of the first rank 
who could be set down as an atheist or infidel. And on the 
other side of the water, however it may be with the science of 
Continental Europe, we think it will be found, that all the 
greatest living lights of the British Isles may be fairly ranged 
on the side of Christianity and the Bible. 

As for the future, although it is the destiny of science to 
make endless progress, while the Bible, as containing a com- 
pleted revelation, must ever stand by its ancient landmarks, we 
have no fear, that science and the Bible will ever clash. Our 
confidence in their ultimate and eternal harmony is grounded 
on the conviction, that they are ordained of God, each in its 
proper sphere, to be a revelation of his will to man. The ex- 
pounder of science and the expounder of the Bible ought to feel 
that they are brothers and co-workers. The one ought to feel, 
that he has as much at stake, in making his established facts 
harmonize with the book of God, as the other has, in so inter- 
preting that book as to reconcile it with the progress of science. 
And whenever there is an apparent discrepancy, as there has 
often been, the presumption on both sides ought to be, for it is 
a presumption justified by all past experience, not that there is 
a conflict of facts, but a conflict of interpretations and opinions. 

We have no sympathy with those on the one side, any more 
than with those on the other, who are accustomed to represent 
the two great record books of God as being in conflict, or likely 
to become so, in their established facts. There are two Testa- 
ments in the Bible — an earlier and a later one — and we are very 
sure that they speak the truth — the same harmonious truth, to 



368 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

all who will read and interpret them aright. And if God has 
also graven another still earlier testimony in the rocks, we are 
very sure that this also will speak the truth to all who read 
and interpret it aright. But as fallible man may give, and 
often has given, a wrong interpretation both to the written and 
the rocky records, it is the great work and duty of all the 
friends of truth on every side, to compare these records faith- 
fully, to read them in the light of each other, and to interpret 
and expound the one by the other, even as we do the Old Testa- 
ment by the New, and vice versa. 

The great Bacon, father of our inductive philosophy, was 
willing to read and to recognize both books — the book of reve- 
lation and the book of nature, as the two grand Scriptures of 
God. But the great Bacon, in his day, had access to only one 
Testament of the book of nature — the New Testament so to 
speak of the living world around him. It has been reserved to 
modern geology to bring to light an older dispensation — to un- 
fold from the rocks and read to us what may be called the Old 
Testament of the book of nature, *'ut tanquam altera Scrip- 
tura." 

Let us then receive the records of God wherever he has 
written them, not fearing that the great Author of nature and 
of the Bible has contradicted himself, or that one of his books 
can suffer damage from the reading of the other. *'The two 
records," remarks Professor Dana, '' the earlier revelation and 
the later, are one in their sublime enunciations of the history of 
creation. There is a like grandeur in the progress of the ages. 
They both contain conceptions infinitely beyond the reach of 
the human intellect, and bear equal evidence of their divine 
origin. * The grand old book of God still stands,' and this 
old earth, the more its leaves are turned over and pondered 



OF THE BIBLE. 369 

the more will it sustaia, enlighten, and illustrate the sacred 
word. The two are independent inscriptions, written in lines 
of light by the same sun of righteousness, and the more deeply 
they are studied and loved for their truths, the higher may we 
rise towards the effulgence of their eternal source." 

Such is the noble testimony of science, as expounded by one 
of her most worthy representatives on this side of the water. 
And most nobly does theology respond to the sentiment, from 
the other side, by one of the most accomplished of her living 
expounders. '' Science," says Dr. McCosh, " has a foundation, 
and so has religion ; let them unite their foundations, and the 
basis will be broader, and there will be two compartments of 
one great fabric reared to the glory of God. Let the one be 
the outer, and the other the inner court. In the one let all 
look, and admire, and adore ; and in the other let those who 
have faith kneel, and pray, and praise. Let the one be the 
Sanctuary, where human learning may present its richest in- 
cense as an offering to God, and the other, the Holiest of all, 
separated from it by a veil now rent in twain, and in which on 
a blood-sprinkled mercy-seat, we pour out the love of a recon- 
ciled heart, and hear the oracles of the living God." 

And what need we say more ? The great ^N'ewton, after 
expounding the laws of the material universe, closed the labors 
of his life in expounding the chronology of the book of God. 
And how many in every age — the masters of art and eloquence, 
the laurel-crowned princes of science and literature — have come, 
like him, to this book, that they might learn their last lessons 
of celestial wisdom at the feet of Jesus ! "Newton," savs 
Gilfillan, " laid not his dying head on his Principia, but on his 
Bible ; Cowper, not on his Task, but on his Testament : Hall, 
not on his wide fame, but on his humble hope : Michael Angelo. 

16* 



370 SCIENCE AND THE SAGES 

not on that pencil which alone coped with the Judgment, but 
on that grace which for him, shore the Judgment of its terrors : 
Coleridge, not on his limitless genius, but on the mercy of God. 
Often must the wanderer, amid American forests, lay his head 
upon a rude log, while above it is the abyss of the stars. Thus 
the weary, heavy-laden, dying Christian leans upon the rugged 
and narrow cross, but looks up, the while, to the beaming cano 
py of immortal life — to those things which are above." So 
may we at last, cling to the Bible and lean upon Christ and 
his cross, as our sublimest science. 

For in whatever light we survey the subject, whether of his- 
tory, philosophy, or experience, we feel all the force of the 
conclusion, brought out with such power by the author of that 
great work, " The Knowledge of God," — a work which is itself 
a demonstration of the true science of the Bible, and an imper- 
ishable monument to the genius and learning of our country — 
" If these Scriptures are not the product of a superhuman 
intelligence, it requires a superhuman intelligence to determine 
what they are the product of." 

Should all the forms that men devise 
Assault my faith with treacherous art, 
I'll call them vanity and lies 
And bind the Bible to my heart. 



OF THE BIBLE. 371 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ORIGmAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY 
AND BEAUTY, IN THE BIBLE. 

The Divine Existence — The Providence of God — The Personal Character of Christ— 
The Idea of Special Divine Influence — The Church of God — The Common Brother- 
hood of Man — The Day of Sacred Rest — The Millennium — The Resurection of the 
Dead — The Last Judgment — The Heavenly World — The Scheme of Redemption — 
Recapitulation and Conclusion. 

In order to form a proper estimate of the Bible as a book of 
taste and genius, we have been led to survey its literary and 
scientific characteristics — its wide range of history and its sin- 
gularly diversified biographical characters. The subject is not 
yet exhausted. There is one distinct and important field which 
has not yet fallen under our review. There is one train of 
thought which, through all these illustrations, has been con- 
stantly presenting itself to the mind^s eye from a distance, 
which deserves now to be brought more fully into view. It is 
so rich in the choicest fruits of literature, so adorned with all 
that goes to make up a landscape of surpassing glory, that it 
may be taken as the subject of a separate investigation. It is 
a survey of the great orginal conceptions of the Bible, regard- 
ed simply as objects of intellectual beauty and of moral 
grandeur, which we here propose. 

Our purpose is to single out from the mass of facts and doc 



372 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OE, 

trines revealed in the Bible, certain leading ideas, which every 
where pervade the book as its own peculiar and original dis- 
coveries ; and to look at these ideas, not now as matters of fact, 
viewed from the stand-point of theological truth and duty, 
but simply as matters of thought viewed from the stand-point of 
intellectual and moral beauty — that beauty indeed which even 
if they were false, would still belong to them, as the most won- 
derful and original conceptions of the human mind. 

To every thoughtful reader of the Bible it is apparent, that 
there are certain great fundamental principles, or doctrines of a 
general character, which belong so exclusively to the book, that 
they may be called its special property, its original sterling 
stock of thought. Though now incorporated as part and par- 
cel of the learning of the whole civilized world, to such an 
extent that the world often forgets from what quarter they came, 
still these conceptions are all to be traced to the Bible as their 
native home. For it will be found, that where the Bible has 
borrowed one great thought from the literature of the ancient 
world, it has loaned a thousand to that of the modern. Old 
and familiar as they are to us, they were new when the Bible 
struck taem out. 

Now, many of these great leading ideas which distinguish the 
Bible from all other books, are, at the same time, so marked 
w^ith the elements of the sublime and beautiful, that they can- 
not fail to constitute a very high attraction to those who are 
capable of appreciating such things. Hence, among the mani- 
fold attractions of the book of God, we would assign a place — 
and no inferior place — to its grand conceptions or in other words 
its objects of intellectual and moral beauty. It is our present 
purpose to present, in connection, some of these peculiar revela- 
tions of the Scriptures. For we think, that aside from their 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 373 

higher claims as Divine eternal truths, there are to be found 
here, even on the lower ground of classical beauty, revelations 
of glory, and scenes of loveliness, and heights of grandeur, and 
flashes of immortal light, far exceeding all other discoveries and 
conceptions of human genius. So that, if a man love to dwell 
in the regions of lofty thought, to soar into the third heaven of 
imagination, to rise from the seen and temporal to the unseen 
and eternal, if he have a soul, whose high conceptions may be 
kindled and dilated by the contemplation of all that is most 
beautiful in nature, most sublime in science, most noble in action, 
most Godlike in holiness and virtue — this is the book for him, 
the book that first opens a new world of wonder within us, 
and then opens to us a clear vision into the future and eternal 
world. 

There is a voice here which seems to call from heaven, like 
the angel of the Apocalypse, saying ^' Come up hither, and I 
will show thee things to come." . There were good things to be 
found in Nazareth, notwithstanding the prejudices of the good 
Nathaniel. But said the Master, *' Thou shalt see greater 
things than these, when thou shalt see heaven open, and the 
angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man.'' 
The traveller, you know, who would command a wide and glorious 
horizon, must ascend the mountain-top : if he would enjoy a 
vision of transcendent loveliness and grandeur, he must toil for 
it, he must climb the very crags of the mountains ; and the 
hio'her he climbs the wider will be his field of vision. Even 
so is it in that spiritual world which the Bible reveals. Let us 
then endeavor to ascend these glorious heights. Let us rise 
from facts to principles, from the concrete and particular to the 
abstract and the universal, from the liv iUg historical characters 
that everywhere adorn the inspired pages, to those grand, 



374: ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS; OR, 

ennobling, conceptions of eternal truth, which made the men, 
women, and children of the Bible what they were ; which con- 
stituted their manna from heaven — that daily ambrosial food on 
which their immortal spirits fed even while dwelling in the 
tabernacles of clay. 

The world, it is said, is governed by ideas. Assuredly there 
is nothing in the world more important and influential than a 
great idea : for its destiny is to work itself out in the great 
facts and grand events of history. A great idea, in full pos- 
session of a single mind, for instance the idea that struggled so 
long for birth in the mind of Columbus, is a great gain to the 
world. How much more, when such an idea takes posses- 
sion of the public mind of a nation, a generation or the race of 
man ! Now if it shall be shown, that the world is indebted to 
the Bible for more of its grand, inspiring ideas — ideas having 
power both to absorb its thought and control its destiny — than 
to any other source, who will say, that the Bible does not there- 
by fully vindicate its claim to supremacy, not only as man's 
greatest classic, but as God's own inspired oracle ? 



I. — ^THE DIVINE EXISTENCE. 

As the first illustration of this moral sublimity let us take 
the idea of God, as he is made known in the Bible ; that, is the 
twofold idea of the Divine existence and the Divine character, 
the conception of a personal, reigning, all-pervading Deity, the 
omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Jehovah, creating and up- 
holding all things by the fiat of his will and the word of his power, 
existing in himself from eternity to eternity, without beginning 
and without end — the infinitely wise, the infinitely good, the infin- 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 375 

itely holy — " God over all, blessed forever." Although the Scrip- 
tures have themselves made the unanswerable challenge, *' Can'st 
thou by searching find out God? Can'st thou find out the Almighty 
into perfection ?" still no idea can be more distinct, consistent and 
intelligible, than that which the Scriptures have everywhere given 
of the Divine character. Throughout the book from beginning to 
end, it is the same sublime conception of the self existent, infini- 
tely perfect God, as announced by Paul on Mars Hill, *^ God 
that made the world and all things therein, dwelleth not in 
temples made with hands, seeing he is Lord of all," or as pro- 
claimed by the prophet, " Heaven is my throne and the earth 
my footstool," or as affirmed by the Saviour, " God is a spirit, 
and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in 
truth." In every page, in every line, in every manifestation, it 
is the same august and awful idea, without a likeness or a 
counterpart in anything else on earth or in heaven, of a pure 
personal spirit, as expressed in the creed of the church, ^'infinite, 
eternal, and unchangeable in his being, power, wisdom, holi- 
ness, justice, goodness and truth." 

This, you will say, is the one, clear idea of the God of the 
Bible — the unsearchable, the unapproachable object of the 
homage and adoration of the whole rational and moral universe. 
Now compare this conception of God, with any other idea of a 
Deity, not derived from the Scriptures, which has ever ap- 
peared in the literature of the world, ancient or modern. The 
Koran of Mohammed is out of the question ; for whatever it 
contains, either of truth or sublimity, was stolen from the Scrip- 
tures. The North American Indians could talk of a " Great 
Spirit ;" but perhaps with no higher conceptions, than of an 
Indian of like passions with themselves, built on a little larger 
scale ; and it may be, that the name itself is all that remains to 



376 OEIGIKAL CONCEPTIONS ; OE, 

tell of those primeval revelations which their ancestors had 
received from the God of the Bible before the dispersion of the 
race at Babel. But compare the Scriptural idea of the 
unsearchable and ever blessed God, *^ the God of glory /^ with 
any conception of a Deity to be found in the mythology or- 
philosophy of the classical Greeks and Romans, or in the mon- 
uments of Chaldean and Egyptian learning, or in the religious 
books of the modern Pagan nations : and you will find, that the 
difference between the two, in point of sublimity alone, not to 
say truth and reason, is somewhat akin to that which lies 
between the world of the ancient astrologers and the universe 
of modern astronomy. " The Bible," says Dr. Turner, ''repre- 
sents God as no mortal genius ever could, as no human intel- 
lect, unblest by inspiration, ever did, or can. Hell is naked 
before him — heaven is unfolded — all things are like nothing, 
all things are nothing, when compared with him, the infinite 
Maker." 

It is safe to say, that the God of the Bible is the profoundest, 
sublimest, most inspiring object of thought which the human in- 
tellect has ever essayed to grasp. No one thought has taken so 
deep a hold upon the human mind : no one theme has given it 
so much healthful exercise : no one idea has done so much 
to enlarge its calibre, and ennoble its aspirations. One of the 
greatest statesmen of modern times, Mr. Webster, when re- 
quested by a friend to name what he regarded as the most im 
portant thought that had ever entered his mind, after a solemn 
pause, replied : " My accountability to God." And had he 
been asked for the sublimest conception of the mind, would he 
Hot have answered, '' God himself?" 

We are all so familiar, from our childhood, with the Scriptural 
idea of God, it has become so incorporated with the literature 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 377 

of the civilized world, that we often fail to appreciate its grand- 
eur as an original conception, and its value as the highest of all 
scientific truths. But suppose, that while blest with the know- 
ledge of all other things, we could grow up to full maturity of 
intellect in utter ignorance of the Scriptural idea of God — sup- 
pose, that with the mental vigor of Socrates, the learning of 
Cicero, the taste of Addison, the moral tone and enthusiasm of 
Burke, we should receive, for the first time and all at once, the 
full conception of the person and character of Jehovah as re- 
vealed in the Bible — suppose, that thus endowed and prepared, 
we could stand where Moses stood, in the clefts of Sinai's rocks, 
whilst the visions of uncreated glory passed by, and a voice was 
heard proclaiming, '* The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long 
suffering and abundant in goodness and truth " — suppose we 
could stand where Isaiah stood, see and hear what Isaiah saw 
and heard, when the Lord sat upon his burning throne, and the 
Seraphim cried one to another : ^' Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! is the 
Lord of hosts : the whole earth is full of his glory 1" Suppose 
we could stand with the seer of Patmos, amid the visions and 
trumpets and thunders of the Apocalypse, and gaze in upon the 
choirs of angels and redeemed ones, who cease not day nor 
night to cast their glittering crowns before the throne, and 
cry : '' Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Al- 
mighty ; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints !" — - 
how would all the images of earthly grandeur dwindle into in- 
significance, how would all our loftiest conceptions of Divinity, 
derived from Greek and Eoman classics, sink into annihilation, 
before such a vision and such a manifestation of the one living 
and true God of the Bible, glorious in holiness, fearful in 
praises, doing wonders, who spake and it was done, who com- 
manded and it stood fast, at whose presence the perpetual hills 



378 ORIGINAL conceptions; ok, 

did bow, before whose glance the everlasting mountains were 
scattered, who said, " Let there be light : and there was light." 

The Bible is not only the revealer of the unknown God to 
man, but his grand interpreter as the God of nature. In re- 
vealiag God, it has given us the key that unlocks the profound- 
est mysteries of creation — the clue by which to thread the 
labyrinth of the universe — the glass through which to look from 
nature up to nature's Author. It is only when we stand and gaze 
upon nature with the Bible in our hands and its idea of God in 
our understandings, that nature is capable of rising to her high- 
est majesty as the oracle and mouth-piece of God, of kindling in 
our souls their highest emotions of moral beauty and sublimity. 
Without the aU pervading spiritual God of the Bible in our 
thoughts, nature's sweetest music would lose its charm — the 
universe its highest significance and glory. It is just when we 
stand and gaze upon the heavens and the earth, with God's 
word as our interpreter, that the heavens and earth shine forth 
with their divinest lustre — all nature vocal with God, all crea- 
tures offering praise. 

Go and stand, with your open Bible, upon the Areopagus of 
Athens, where Paul stood so long ago : in thoughtful silence, 
look around upon the site of all that ancient greatness : look 
upward to those still bright and glorious skies of Greece ; and 
what conceptions of wisdom and power will all those memorable 
scenes of nature and art convey to your mind, now, mor£ than 
they did to an ancient worshipper of Jupiter or Apollo ? They 
will tell of Him, who made the worlds, " by whom, and through 
whom, and for whom, are all things." To you that landscape 
of exceeding beauty, so rich in the monuments of departed gen- 
ius, with its distant classic mountains, its deep blue sea, and its 
bright bending skies, will be telling a tale of glory, the 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 379 

Grecian never learned ; for it will speak to you, no more of its 
thirty thousand petty contending deities, but of the one living 
and everlasting God. 

Go and stand with David and Isaiah under the star-spangled 
canopy of the night, and, as you look away to the '* range of 
planets, suns, and adamantine spheres, wheeling unshaken 
through the void immense," take up the mighty questionings of 
inspiration : '* Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of 
his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and compre- 
hended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the 
mountains in scales and the hills in a balance ? It is He that 
sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof 
are as grasshoppers ; that stretcheth out the heavens as a cur- 
tain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in." '' Of old 
hast thou laid the foundation of the earth • and the heavens are 
the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt en- 
dure : yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a ves- 
ture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed : But 
thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." 

Go and stand upon the heights at Niagara : look upon that 
'* matchless robe of terror and of beauty," rolling on forever, 
and as it rolls, '* notching the centuries " in the everlasting 
rocks : listen, in awe-struck silence, to that boldest, most earn- 
est and eloquent of all nature's orators. And what is Niagara 
with its plunging waters and its mighty roar ? It is but the 
oracle of God. It is but the whisper of his voice, who is re- 
vealed in the Bible, as sitting above the water-floods forever. 
*' The voice of the Lord is upon the waters : the God of glovy 
thuudereth : the Lord is upon many waters : the voice of the 
Lord is full of majesty." 

Go with your Bible and stand upon the crumbling verge of 



380 ORIGINAL conceptions; OEj 

the volcano. Look down into its awful crater as into the open- 
ing mouth of hell ; gaze upon its fierce, surging billows of 
liquid fire ; hear its deep muttering thunders, ominous of the 
coming explosion ; behold its red artillery plunging and plough- 
ing down the mountain sides, its dense volume of smoke and 
cinders, rising up as if to extinguish the sun ! And of whom 
do ^tna and Vesuvius speak ? What are they but the symbols 
of His presence, and the heralds of His wrath, who is yet to 
arise in his majesty, " whose voice shook the earth, and shall 
once more shake not only earth, but also heaven ?" What are 
they but premonitors of that day wherein ** the heavens being 
on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
heat, the earth also, and all the works that are therein shall be 
burned up." 

Go once more and stand with Coleridge, at sunrise, in the 
Alpine valley of Chamouny ; join with him in that magnificent 
invocation to the hoary mount, ^' sole sovereign of the vale," to 
rise with all its streams, and groves, and cataracts, and ice- 
fields — 

** And tell the silent sky, 
And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun, 
Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God." 
" God ! let the torrents, like a shout of nations 
Answer ! and let the ice-plains echo, God ! 
God ! sing ye meadow-streams with gladsome voice ! 
Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds! 
And they, too, have a voice, yon piles of snow, 
And in their perilous fall shall thunder God !'* 

Who can stand amid scenes like these, with the Bible in his 
hands, and not feel, that if there is moral sublimity to be found 
on earth, it is in the book of God, it is in the thought of God ? 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 381 

For what are all these outward visible forms of grandeur, but 
the expression and the utterance of that conception of Deity 
which the Bible has created in our minds, and which has now 
become the leading and the largest thought of all civilized 
nations ? And what would these types and symbols be without 
the Bible as God^s interpreter ? 



II. ^THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 

As the second illustration of intellectual and moral grandeur 
in the Bible, let us take the doctrine of Divine Providence, 
including as it does, the idea of God^s natural and moral govern- 
ment over the world. We might have taken his work of crea- 
tion — the calling into being out of nothing of all worlds and 
creatures. This is a sublime exhibition of power, and a strik- 
ing illustration of the superiority of the Scriptures over all other 
books ; for, it is manifest, that no other account of the origin 
of all things, not even the " development hypothesis," is half so 
sublime, half so philosophical, as the Mosaic account. But 
it is more to our present purpose, to take the Scriptural idea of 
Divine Providence, as one of those great objects of thought, or 
fundamental facts of revelation, whose contemplation is fitted 
to inspire our minds with sentiments of the highest sublimity 
and beauty. A God existing from all eternity is a sublime con- 
ception. A God creating all things out of nothing is sublime 
and glorious. But it is a God providing and governing all 
things in infinite wisdom and goodness, after the counsel of his 
own will, and for the furtherance of his own glory and his chil- 
dren's well-being, that we are to contemplate, in the Scripture doc- 
trine of eternal providence. It is a God, not afar off, reposing in 



382 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

the distant places of the universe, but ever present with the least as 
with the greatest of his creatures ; foreseeing the end from the 
beginning, everywhere educing good out of evil ; and whilst carry- 
ing forward the vast machinery of countless worlds of animate and 
inanimate beings, numbering the very hairs of our heads ; not suf- 
fering a sparrow to fall to the ground except in fulfillment of his 
everlasting decrees ; a God whose energetic will gives force to all 
the laws of physical nature ; whose all-inspecting government 
extends to every inhabitant of the material and moral uni- 
verse. 

" Who sees with equal eye as God of all 

A hero perish and a sparrow fall : 

Atoms and systems into ruin hurled, 

And now a bubble burst, and now a world." 

This sublime idea of infinite Intelligence and Power, filling 
the throne of the universe, governing and guiding all its vastest 
and minutest movements — the Deity in activity — is the concep- 
tion of Divine Providence, which is everywhere unfolded to our 
view in the Scriptures. *'Thou God seest me" — *' The Lord 
will provide" — " The heavens do rule" — '* The Lord reigncth " 
— ^' The Most Hio'h ruleth in the kimz-dom of men" — this is the 
variously expressed, but constant thought of the sacred writers. 
The great truth is well expressed in the decree of the king of 
Babylon : " His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his 
dominion endureth from generation to generation : all his works 
are truth and all his ways judgment, and those that walk in 
pride he is able to abase." But we need not multiply quota-w 
tions. You know how full the Bible is of this doctrine. Every 
page of the sacred oracles either affirms or exemplifies it : 
and every chapter of human history confirms it. The Lord sit- 
teth in the heavens as governor among the nations. ** Tho 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 383 

heart of man deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his 
steps. * 

Now without stopping further to elucidate this great general 
principle of the Bible, which we call Providence, or the moral 
goYernment of God, may we not affirm, that as an object of 
contemplation, it possesses the highest attributes of sublimity and 
beauty ? Where shall we find a wider fact ? Where shall we 
find a more glorious conception ? Where shall we find a more 
exalted study ? What is it, but the scheme of policy on which 
the jurisprudence of the universe is administered ? What is it, 
but the record book on which time is ever writing the fulfilled 
decrees of Jehovah, and turning the facts of prophecy into those 
of history ? What is it, but one vast, unending scroll, upon 
whose opening leaves all the high and holy intelligences of hea- 
ven are gaziug with new wonder and ever growing delight ? 
There is something sublime in the idea of a vast empire on earth, 
like that of ancient Kome : something grand and imposing in 
the scheme of its policy, the sweep of its history, the vigilant 
providence of its government, the iron rigor of its authority. 
But what is an earthly empire with all its provisions of wisdom 
and power, to the universal and eternal government of God ? 

And yet there have been men, who, while professing admira- 
tion for the sublime and beautiful, have looked with indifference 
or contempt upon the Bible, as a book of no attractions. But 
is there nothing attractive and glorious in the idea of a govern- 
ment so general as to embrace all created beings, and so parti- 
cular as not to overlook or neglect the lowest link in ''being's 
endless chain" — a government moving on forever in perfect 
equity, in unjarring harmony, with irresistible power, to the 
consummation of its august and beneficent designs ? Surely it 
would be hard to find the dwelling-place of moral grandeur, 



384 OKIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

if there be no grandeur in the idea of Divine Providence. But 
it is far different. The most giftea minds that have adorned 
the annals of modern literature, have found both beauty and 
sublimity, as well as consolation and joy, in this great scrip- 
tural truth : and many have brought the noblest powers of 
genius to the elucidation of its profound mysteries, as they have 
sat at the feet of Jesus, and joined in the invocation of Milton : 

" What in me is dark 
Illumine : what is low, raise and support ; 
That to the height of this great argument, 
I may assert eternal Providence 
And justify the ways of God to men." 



III. THE PERSONAL CHARACTER OF CHRIST. 

Let US pass now to a third illustration, of a different order ; 
to contemplate an object of exquisite moral beauty. It is the 
person and character of Jesus Christ — the Scriptural conception 
of Immanuel, as revealed in the prophets and portrayed in the 
New Testament. If there is any oue thing in the Bible, which 
comes to the world with all the glory of a new discovery, as 
orighial as it is peculiar, it is the idea of immaculate virtue, 
as embodied in the life and character of Jesus Christ. Whether 
we read the prophets of the Old Testament or the evangelists 
of the New, the conception of his person and character is the 
same, shining out with all the distinctness of a living presence. 
No character was ever drawn in bolder, clearer lines. No per- 
sonage in human history stands forth more prominently to every 
eye. Our idea of Socrates or Csesar, of Napoleon or Washing- 
ton, for distinctness of outline and vividness of impression, can- 
not be compared with that of Jesus. It is as transparent as 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 385 

the light ; it is as unique as it is transparent ; it is as radiant 
with moral beauty and sublimity as it is original. And we may 
safely say, there is no one thought in the intellect of the world 
more definite — none which it has grasped with a stronger and 
fonder hold — than this conception of the personal character of 
the great founder of Christianity — Jesus the Son of man, Jesus 
the Son of God. 

Accordingly we fix upon this sublime impersonation of imma- 
culate virtue — this incarnation of Divinity in a sinless humanity 
— this living personal character of Jesus, as one of the chief 
attractions of the book of God. There is no such example to 
be found elsewhere in the history of men. There is no such 
conception, thus embodied and exemplified, in any other book 
of human literature. And if infidelity could prove that the 
Bible is all a fable, and religion all a dream ; that no such per- 
son as Jesus ever lived ; that the character is not real but ficti- 
tious — a mere creation of enthusiasm and romance : still the 
idea remains, the conception lives and can never die : it is there 
in the book, and it is here all over the world, bright and glori- 
ous like the light ; and even if it were a mere creation of 
genius, it is beyond all comparison, the most sublime and 
beautiful creation the world ever beheld. 

In Jesus Christ we see reflected, as the moon reflects the 
sunlight, all the virtues that can be conceived of, as adorning 
the moral character of God. In his person we see Divine glory 
equally blended with human perfection. As we can gaze upon 
the sunlight with unblasted vision, when it comes to us from 
the face of the full orb of night, so may we look upon the 
bright beams of uncreated Divinity, as they shine with softened 
efrulo:ence from the face of Jesus Christ. All the lights of 
celestial virtue beam forth in his character : all the glories of 

n 



380* ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

Divinity and humanity cluster around Ms person. He is at once 
the highest model of human excellence, and the brightest mani- 
festation of Divine perfection, which the world has ever seen 
exemplified in a living man. Nay, more, his character is the 
highest conception of these assembled virtues which the human 
mind has ever attained. It is all light without a shadow — all 
beauty without a spot — all gold without alloy — combining in 
one the peculiar virtues of both sexes, and all the essential 
attributes of God and man. Well might the ancient prophet 
describe him as ^' Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the 
everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.'' 

In the whole history of his life and character on earth, as 
given in the New Testament, there is such a beautiful blending 
of Divinity with humanity — such an exact equilibrium between 
all the circumstances of humility and grandeur — that the chal- 
lenge may be safely made, *^ Prove him to be a man and we 
will prove him to be God : or prove him to be a God, and we 
will at once prove him a man." These circumstances, which 
furnish one of the most touching and fruitful themes of pulpit 
eloquence have been beautifully grouped together by Maclaurin 
and other great preachers ; but perhaps by no one more strikingly 
than by Dr. Baker, in the following passage : 

** See him at the grave of Lazarus ! He weeps like a man ; 
and then with authority, says, Lazarus ! come forth ! like a 
God. Approaching the barren fig-tree, he hungers, like a man ; 
and then, with a word, withers the fig-tree away, like a God. 
During a raging storm on the sea of Tiberias, he lay in the 
hinder part of the ship with his head upon a pillow — he slept 
like a man. Being called upon, he rose and rebuked the winds 
and the sea, like a God. Having wrought a stupendous mira- 
cle, he goes into a mountain apart to pray, like a man, and at 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 387 

the fourth watch of the night he comes to his disciples, walking 
upon the water, like a God. As a man he pays tribute money : 
as a God he causes a fish to bring him the tribute money. 
Nailed to the cross he suffers like a man. And yet in the 
midst of his sufferings he opens the gates of paradise to the 
dying thief like a God. In yonder sepulchre, the hope of 
Israel, wrapt in the winding sheet, lies pale^and cold in death, 
like a man. But lo ! in the morning of the third day, by his 
own immortal energies, he burst the bars of death and rose 
triumphant, like a God. After the resurrection, he meets his 
disciples, takes a piece of broiled fish and of honeycomb and 
eats with them as a man. He then leads them out to Bethany 
and blesses them, and as he blesses them ascends in a cloud of 
radiant majesty, far above all heavens, a God confessed ! God 
is gone up with a shout ! The Lord with the sound of a trumpet." 
On whatever side we behold him, his character is new and 
wonderful, unlike any other in history. As the Son of the Holy 
One, incarnate, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the 
express image of his person, there dwells in him '^ all the fullness 
of the Godhead bodily,'^ — he is God manifest in the flesh. As 
the son of Man, born of a woman, there cluster around his 
character all those lineaments of grace and gentleness and sym- 
pathy, which make him a perfect exemplar to woman and help- 
less childhood, as he is to ripened manhood. As the Saviour 
of the world, the Prophet, Priest and King of human redemp- 
tion, he possesses all the beauty and attractiveness of the most 
complete adaptation to our wants and woes, as guilty, helpless 
sinners. As a friend, brother and Kedeemer, there is found in 
him every attribute, every qualification that the soul of man 
needs to atone for its guilt, and satisfy its longings after life 
and immortality. And as a man, tabernachng amongst men for 



388 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

a season, we beliold in his life and character all those noble 
traits of truth, justice, honor, wisdom, courage, integrity, forti- 
tude, self-denial, and beneficence, which have made him a model 
of absolute perfection to all nations and generations of men. 

*' Few and precious are the words which the lips of wisdom 
utter ;" but when did wisdom ever utter such words of eloquence 
and power as fell from the lips of him, who, on the testimony of 
his foes, '* spake as never man spake 1" When did majesty ever 
lay aside its robes, and stoop from its throne with such graceful 
condescension and winning love, as when the Son of God preached 
the Gospel to the poor, and listened to the cry of men of low 
estate ? When did high, heroic courage, strong in the panoply 
of truth and duty, ever march more steadily onward to its goal, 
despite the opposition of earth and hell, than when Jesus of Naz- 
areth gave his life for the salvation of the lost ? When did ben- 
eficence, like an angel of mercy descending from the skies, ever 
go forth on such a mission of good-will to the outcast and the 
perishing, as when this man of sorrows, who had not where to 
lay his head, trod the hills of Judea and the valleys of Galilee, 
in one long weary pilgrimage, to inaugurate charity among the 
virtues, and teach the world what no philosopher had ever 
taught, that '^it is more blessed to give than to receive !" 
And when before did our humanitv ever clothe itself in such 
habiliments of celestial love and mercy, as when the sufferer of 
Calvary poured forth that dying prayer : '' Father, forgive them^ 
they know not what they do ?" 

*' The founder of Christianity," says Dr. J. W. Alexander, 
" stands forth in a character absolutely original and unique. 
The attempt was never made to trace it to any foregoing exem- 
plar. Neither history nor fiction approaches to anything which 
could serve even as the germ of such a description. The pic- 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 389 

tare is intensely and sublimely moral. With a reserve almost 
without a parallel, there is not a touch or color thrown in, to 
gratify even what might be considered a reasonable curiosity. 
Hence there is not a syllable respecting the outward figure, 
countenance or demeanor of our Lord." 

Whence came this extraordinary manifestation of living 
character in the Son of Mary ! Or if, as skepticism would 
suggest, it be not real, whence came this sublime conception of 
character so far surpassing the highest ideal of the poets and 
sages of ancient literature ? Was it from heaven or of men ? 
If from heaven, then the character was real, and the wonder is 
explained by the Divine origin of Christianity. But if of men, 
who shall explain the mystery ? It is abundantly manifest, that 
until infidelity can account for the phenomenon of the character 
of Jesus, on grounds more satisfactory than those which derive 
it from heaven, it must stand as it always has stood, a strong 
and unanswerable vindication of the truth of Christianity. Says 
Dr. E. J. Breckenridge, in his admirable discourse on the Inter- 
nal Evidence, " I do not see but that it is far more rational to 
admit, with all the writers of the book, that the entire concep- 
tion they all had of the Son of God, was divinely communicated 
to them, than to suppose that any one of them could have 
originated and developed such a conception, much less that all 
of them could have wrought upon that glorions composition, 
each in a manner working out what the rest had left unfinished, 
and that the perfect work should have been what we now behold 
it. The entire idea of Jesus of Nazereth, taken as a whole, is 
as much superhuman as the alleged manner of his birth ; 
and the working out of that idea is as miraculous as the incar- 
nation." 

Is there no charm then in a character like this ? Shall men 



890 ORIGINAL conceptions; ok, 

admire, and weep over, the real or imaginary heroes of history 
and romance, and yet find nothing beautiful in the history, 
sublime in the virtue, and godlike in the character of Jesus of 
Nazareth ? Has any poet or novelist ever painted an ideal of 
such perfection, or told a story of such tender and tragic inter- 
est ? And shall we be told, that the book which has given 
the world this narrative, and originated this unique and bril- 
liant conception, is not worthy to occupy the front rank of sub- 
limity and genius in the literature of the world ? Infidelity 
itself has bowed in admiring homage before the superior lustre 
of the life of Christ, and by the lips of Rousseau, has virtually 
confessed that there is a Divine inspiration in the book. *^ It is 
impossible," says he, *' to rise from the reading of it (the Gos- 
pel), without feeling a moral improvement. Look at the books 
of the philosophers with all their pomp : how little they are, 
compared with this ! Shall we say, that the history of the 
Gospel is a pure fiction ? This is not the style of fiction ; and 
the history of Socrates, which nobody doubts, rests upon less 
evidence than that of Jesus Christ. And after all, this is but 
shifting the dif&culty, not answering it. The supposition that 
several persons had united to fabricate this book is more incon- 
ceivable than that one person should have supplied the subject 
of it. The spirit which it breathes, the morality which it incul- 
cates, could never have been the invention of Jewish authors : 
and the Gospel possesses characters of truth so striking, so 
perfectly inimitable, that the inventor would be a more aston- 
ishing object than the hero." 

But perhaps some one may say, " I do not see the fitness of 
this high eulogy on the Gospel, in its delineation of character. 
The character of Jesus is indeed original and beautiful, but are 
there not also original and beautiful descriptions of character 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 391 

in Milton, in Shakspeare, in Walter Scott, and other great 
masters of the art of writing T^ Certainly : but as the perfec- 
tion of all art is to conceal the art by which it is done, so that 
it shall appear to be nothing but nature itself, the wonder here 
is, how men who had no learning, and are known to have had 
no experience in the art of writing, could have reached its per- 
fection so completely, as the Evangelists. The highest of all 
attainments in the art of delineation, as a recent critic well re- 
marks — historic, poetic and dramatic delineation — ^is to set the 
character before us, without describing it at all, except by its 
deeds — -just to set it in motion and let it act ; and so speak for 
itself, without note or comment from the writer. The easiest of 
all modes, and the least masterly, is the modern fashion of pen- 
painting adopted by our novelists, who compensate for deeds in 
the hero, by their own words of description, without which we 
should hardly know the character. The next lowest method is 
to set the persons to talking — talking to each other in dialogue, 
or to themselves in soliloquy or to some imaginary third person 
— and so revealing what is in them — what they have done or 
can do. The highest and most difficult of all methods is that 
of letting the outward actions of the life tell the inward story 
of the character. And that is the one adopted by all the 
sacred writers, especially by those who have set forth the charac- 
ter of Jesus. Who will say it was ever surpassed, or even 
equalled ? Whence this perfection ? The wonder is not 
merely, how the Evangelists could invent such a character as 
that of Jesus, but in case no original was before them, or even 
supposing there was, how they, unlettered, unartistic Jews, 
could describe it as they have done — by leaving it alone, to 
live and move, and teach and pray, and die, without one word 
of eulogy from them. 



392 ORIGINAL conceptions; OB3 



IV. THE IDEA OF SPECIAL DIVINE INFLUENCE. 

Our next illustration of moral beauty, revealed in the Scrip- 
tures, may be taken from the work ascribed to the agency of 
the Divine Spirit in the hearts of men. No reader of the Old 
Testament or the New can fail to see what prominence this 
great fact everywhere holds. It is one of the widest, most 
important, and most extraordinary facts of the book. The con- 
ception, of a special Divine inspiration, illumination, influence, 
agency, or whatever it may be named, is before us on every 
page. Besides the idea of a universal Divine Providence con- 
stantly exerting itself over the world, the Scriptures are full of 
another grand idea of like character — even that of an influence 
from God, direct and powerful, in the minds of men. The 
Scriptures uniformly refer their own existence to this agency. 
The sacred writers invariably ascribe all that is good in them- 
selves, and all the moral good in the world, to this exalted 
source. The doctrine of Divine Providence is not more clearly 
revealed, than this great truth of special Divine influence. 
There are manifold forms of it — diversities of gifts, diversities 
of operations, differences of administrations — but in all, it is one 
and the same agency, whether called the Spirit, or the Com- 
forter, or the Holy Ghost, or the inspiration of the Almighty. 
To this influence, as the fountain-head, the Bible traces all the 
streams of Divine truth and grace and holiness that have ever 
flowed down into our apostate world. To this influence, as the 
efficient producing cause, the Bible refers all the phenomena of 
moral renovation and spiritual life that have ever been exhibit- 
ed in human character. All the inspired revelations of Divine 
truth that make up the canon of Scripture ; all the mani- 



OBJECTS OF SUBLDkriTY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 393 

festations of the spirit of prophecy in ancient times ; all the 
wonderful exhibitions of spiritual power on the day of Pentecost ; 
all the seasons of revival and all the cases of conversion 
and reformation that have marked the history of the church ; 
all the virtues and graces of holiness that have adorned 
the character of the Christian in every age and nation — all 
Divine truth, grace and holiness in the world, find their source 
and centre in this great idea of the word of God — the influence 
and agency of the Holy Ghost. All these worketh that one 
and the self-same Spirit — the only true light to enlighten every 
man that cometh into the world. 

Now without stopping to debate the evidences for the reality 
of this great doctrine, suppose we lay hold upon the bare con- 
ception as presented in the Bible, and contemplate it simply as 
an object of thought. Is it not manifestly one of sublimity 
and beauty, calculated to inspire the mind of him who holds it 
as the truth of God, with sentiments of the highest enthusiasm ? 
We have seen the glory of Divinity as it shines in the face of 
Immanuel. But here is a Divinity that stirs within ourselves, 
and may shine forth in all our Christian graces. '* The spirit 
that I will give you shall be in you, and shall abide with you 
forever." That Spirit which descended from heaven on the day 
of Pentecost, and has filled the church with glory, shall come 
to our relief and make his abode in our hearts. To the good 
man, struggling against manifold temptations, what thought 
can be more cheering, more sublime, than the inhabitation of 
the Spirit of God ? And will the Lord indeed dwell with men ? 
Shall these hearts be the subjects of Divine influence ? Shall 
these bodies be the dwelling-place of the Holy One ? Yes, this 
is the precise idea of the Spirit given in the Scriptures. *' Know 
ye not that ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost ?" Beauti- 

17* 



394: ORIGINAL CONCEPTIOKS ; OK, 

fully has it been said, that the Most High has two favorite 
dwelling-places — the one in Heaven, the other in the contrite 
heart. 

Then let a man grasp this thought in all its fullness — let him 
take it as he finds it in the book of God, and believe it with all 
his heart — ^let him think, let him know, as he will know by an 
inward witness, that his own heart has been the subject of this 
mighty operation of God — ^let him feel that he carries about with 
him, in his daily walk and conversation, this Divine monitor, as 
an ever present helper, guide, comforter — and do you not see, 
how such a man is armed for the great battle of life with more 
than mortal armor ? how he is elevated in the scale of being by 
the consolousness of such companionship with God ? how 
this one great doctrine of Scripture has filled his mind with 
emotions wliich, in their very nature, are sublime and beautiful 
and glorious ? how by being made partaker of the Divine 
nature, through the influence of the Spirit, he is at once allied 
with all that is high and holy in the spiritual and eternal 
world ! The Bible knows no such thought as the deification of 
men, or the canonization of saints : but it gives us an infinitely 
grander thought in this descent of the Spirit into the bosom of 
the church — this blessed inhabitation of God in the heart of 
every regenerate man — this Divine light shining in the midst of 
a dark world. 

What are all the apparitions and metamorphoses of gods and 
goddesses in classical poetry, compared with this mighty in- 
dwelling of the Holy Ghost, by which a sinner like Saul of 
Tarsus, breathing out threatenings and slaughter, is transformed 
into an apostle of the Lamb ; by which thousands have passed 
from spiritual darkness and death to the marvelous light of 
God's dear children ; by which whole nations have been re- 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 393 

claimed from barbarism and idolatry ; by which this sin-polluted 
world is to be ultimately disenthralled and redeemed ? If any 
one wishes to appreciate this thought in all its grandeur, let 
him read such a passage as Macaulay's description of the 
English Puritans — let him mark how the whole force of that 
gorgeous portraiture turns upon this one sublime idea of the 
Bible — the indwelling of the Spirit of God ; and let him re- 
member that it is as true now of the humblest man who has 
been converted, as it was of the Puritans. 

** On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests they 
looked down with contempt : for they esteemed themselves rich 
in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime 
language; nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests 
by the imposition of a mightier hand. The very meanest of 
them was a being to whose fate a mysterious and terrible im- 
portance belonged — on whose slightest actions the spirits of 
light and darkness looked with anxious interest — who had been 
destined before heaven and earth were created to enjoy a feli- 
city which should continue when heaven and earth should have 
passed away. Events which short-sighted politicians ascribed 
to earthly causes had been ordained on his account. For his 
sake empires had risen and flourished and decayed. For his 
sake the Almighty had proclaimed his will by the pen of the 
evangelist, and the harp of the prophet. He had been rescued 
by no common deliverer, from the grasp of no common foe. He 
had been ransomed by the sweat of no vulgar agony, by the 
blood of no earthly sacrifice. It was for him that the sun had 
been darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead had 
arisen, that all nature had shuddered at the sufferings of her 
expiring God." 

Now it may not appear whether the eloquent essayist in this 



396 OKiGiNAL conceptions; ok, 

passage approved, or even believed in, these high thoughts 
and feelings of the Pnritans ; but it is manifest that he writes 
as one who appreciates their unspeakable beauty and sublimity: 
and it is equally manifest, that all these lofty sentiments touch- 
ing the worth and destiny of a soul redeemed, are the legitimate, 
logical offshoots of the grand Scriptural idea of the regenera- 
ting, sanctifying, indwelling Spirit of God. The fact may not 
be heralded amongst the great events of human history, the 
idea may not always find admirers in the walks of this world^s 
literature — but a soul redeemed to God, restored to spiritual 
life, disenthralled from sin and Satan, prepared for immortal 
glory by a special Divine Influence, must ever stand as one of 
the most sublime and wonderful revelations of the Bible — one 
of the most beautiful of all its conceptions, one of the most 
blessed of all its facts. If there is grandeur in this description, 
it is because of the unutterable grandeur of the idea which the 
Bible has given to the world. 

v. THE CHURCH OF GOD. 

Let us pass to another illustration. It is the idea of the 
Church or kingdom of God as revealed in the Scriptures. 
Nothing can be more certain than that there is a church in 
the world, that it is a Divine institution, and that the whole 
conception of it originated in the Scriptures. And whether we 
consider its origin, its design, its economy, its influence, or its 
destination, it is wholly unlike every other institution which 
has ever been founded amongst men. The Scriptural idea of it, 
is that of a kingdom, visible and invisible, whose sovereign 
lawgiver and head is Christ, or God in Christ, whose subjects 
are gathered from all nations and generations of men, whose 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 397 

history embraces the whole course of time, whose theatre of 
action is first the earth and then the heavens, and whose 
final cause is the manifestation of the Divine glory to all the 
universe. 

It is of this church that the prophet Daniel speaks, when 
interpreting the dream of Nebuchadnezzar — *^And in the 
days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom 
which shall never be destroyed : and the kingdom shall not be 
left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and constime 
all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.'^ This is the 
*' stone cut out of the mountains without hands," that should 
break in pieces the iron and the clay, the brass, the silver and 
the gold, till it should become a great mountain itself and fill 
the whole earth. It is this that forms the subject of a subse* 
quent sublime prophecy, when he says — '' I saw in the night 
visions, and behold ! one like the Son of Man came with the 
clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they 
brought him near before him. And there was given him do- 
luinion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations and 
languages should serve him ; his dominion is an everlasting 
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, that 
which shall not be destroyed.'^ This is the kingdom which the 
apostle Paul calls the *' Church of the living God, the pillar 
and ground of the truth," and of which he speaks in another 
place, saying — " God created all things by Jesus Christ, to 
the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly 
places might be known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of 
God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ 
Jesus our Lord." This is that kingdom of heaven, or church 
of the Messiah, which after four thousand years of develop- 
ment and progress through rites and symbols, shadows and 



398 ORIGINAL conceptions; ORj 

prophecies, was at last fully organized and inaugurated by 
Christ himself, and placed upon a foundation of chartered right 
and duty and privilege, on which it shall stand, until the hour of 
its transition from earth to heaven, from the militant to the 
triumphant state. 

Such is the conception of the church as revealed in the 
Scriptures, and in part exemplified through all past history. 
And the question for us now is, where shall we find in history a 
more magnificent conception ? Look for a moment at the ele- 
ments of moral grandeur which cluster around this venerable 
institution. 

First is the element of a Divine origin. It is built upon the 
'* foundation of prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ himself 
being the chief corner stone." Its origin dates from the begin- 
ing of the human race ; its conception goes back to the eternal 
counsels of the Divine mind. At its last great inauguration, 
nearly two thousand years ago, its Divine founder exclaimed — 
" Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it.'' The next element of grandeur is 
its universal character. It gathers its subjects from all the 
ranks of men — from all nations and races and generations of 
men. Its last grand commission to its ambassadors is — " Go ye 
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." 
No pent-up philosophy confined to the few — no exclusive system, 
bounded by zones and mountains, is ever suggested by the Scrip- 
tural idea of the church. Its provisions, its promises, its blessings 
are as wide as the world, as bountiful as the light of day, as 
universal as the all-surrounding air. 

A third element is its irresistible moral power. Its subjects are 
all made willing in the day of God's power : but though free and 
voluntary, they are yet attached to their sovereign Head by 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 399 

an allegiance which has no parallel amongst men. The wea- 
pons of its warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty 
through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. And they 
are as peaceful as they are mighty. It breathes peace on earth 
and good will to all men ; and yet its power is irresistible. The 
sublime language of the Master was, '* My kingdom is not of 
this world." '' Put up thy sword into its sheath, for they that 
take the sword shall perish by the sword." With the sword 
of the Spirit, in the simple majesty of truth, and in God's 
great name, it goes forth to wage an unceasing, uncompromis- 
ing, universal battle against all the powers of sin, both human 
and infernal ; and still, in the strength of these alone, its march 
has been onward through the fires of ten thousand persecutions, 
conquering and to conquer. All other institutions and systems 
and kingdoms of antiquity have perished with the men who 
made them ; while the church of God renews her youth day 
b^ day. The more she has been pressed down and trampled 
in the dust by apostate men, and infidel nations, the more has 
she raised her head in triumphant glory. 

And still another element of sublimity clustering around the 
idea of the church is that of duration, perpetual duration. It 
has come down to us across the graves of all past generations 
of men ; it shall embrace the whole onward sweep of time, till 
time shall end ; and then its orbit is to be projected amid 
those eternal cycles which shall map the new heavens and the 
new earth. The language of Divine promise addressed to the 
great Head of the Church is in such words as these — '' Thy 
throne, God, is forever and ever.'' *' They shall fear thee as 
long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. 
He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass : as 
showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous 



400 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

fiourisli : and abundance of peace so long as the moon 
endureth." 

Men are accustomed to speak of tlie dignity of history. And 
truly there is a sublime moral grandeur in the spectacle of 
great states and nations as recorded on the historic page. 
You have perhaps read ^' Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the 
Eoman Empire," until your conceptions of human power and 
greatness have been expanded and ennobled by the study. But 
what is the Eoman Empire, with its untold populations, its 
arts, and its arms, its learning and its laws, its history of more 
than twenty centuries from its origin to its downfall, compared 
with this vast commonwealth of the saints — this universal 
state of God — the church which at once pervades and compre- 
hends all other states ; whose jurisdiction extends over all the 
land and all the sea ; whose history is coeval and coextensive 
with the race of man ; whose destiny it has been and still is 
to shine in a dark world, like the hallowed bush of Horet), 
ever burning but never consumed ? Indeed, if there is an 
object of moral grandeur in the history of the world, it is to 
be found in the recorded and yet to be fulfilled history of the 
church of God, as developed in the Scriptures. It is the idea 
of Christ in history, reigning and ruling over all, till the last 
enemy shall be put under his feet. 

VI. THE COMMON BROTHERHOOD OF MAN. 

The next leading idea which we select from the mass of 
Scripture truths, as an object of moral beauty and sublimity, is 
the doctrine of man's common brotherhood, coupled with its 
two great essential corollaries, human equality and liberty. 
We beheve that the world is more indebted to the Bible for 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 401 

these sublime and glorious thoughts, than it has ever been will- 
ing to acknowledge. The Bible does not more distinctly reveal 
to us the relation in which w^e stand to God, as his creatures, 
than it does the relation in which we all stand to each other as 
fellow creatures. It is the relation of a common brotherhood — 
the idea of one vast family, of which God is the head and 
Father, extending through all generations, embracing all the 
races and nations of men. '* God," says the apostle to the 
philosophers of Athens, '* hath made of one blood all nations of 
men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath deter- 
mined the time before appointed, and the bounds of their habi- 
tation ; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might 
feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every 
one of us : for in him we live, and move, and have our being ; 
as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his 
oflfspring." In this sublime annunciation of truth, the doctrine 
of man's common brotherhood is not only fully set forth, but 
placed upon an immovable basis, even that of a Divine origin. 
All men are brothers, because all men are children of one 
Father. Indeed the Bible, from first to last, binds all men 
into a common brotherhood by a double tie, and that the tie of 
blood — the blood of creation and the blood of redemption. Of 
one blood he hath made all nations of men : and by one blood, 
the priceless blood of Immanuel, he hath purchased redemp- 
tion for all. A common origin and a common salvation, implying 
a common nature, constitute the extreme links of that chain 
which encircles all the tribes of men, and binds them in broth- 
erhood around the eternal throne. So that if you ask why men 
are brothers, you have the double reason in that declaration of 
Scripture, " There is one God, and one mediator between God 
and men, the man Christ Jesus.'' 



402 ORIGINAL conceptions; or, 

Now this conceptioY- of the unity of the human race and con- 
sequent brotherhood of man, belongs in a special manner to the 
Scriptures. It is chiefly a revelation of the New Testament. 
It never was the received doctrine of any ancient system of 
philosophy. It has never been proclaimed on earth by any reli- 
gion except that of the Bible. It is one of the grand original 
discoveries of the gospel of Christ, who broke down forever the 
old distinction between Jew and Gentile, when he said, " Go, 
teach all nations." It has never been a favorite doctrine, either 
with the philosophers on the one hand, or the despotic oppres- 
sors of men on the other. Although so clearly revealed in the 
book of God, and now so fully vindicated by the profoundest 
researches of modern science, it has had to fight its way against 
the continued assaults of scientific infidelity, and of baptized 
avarice and oppression. Men wishing to grind their fellow men 
under the iron heel of bondage, for purposes of gain or ambition, 
have striven to prove that it can be done in the august name 
of Christianity, and have denied that the doctrine of human 
brotherhood can be found in all her venerable charter. Men 
of science, on the other hand, even down to our own day, find- 
ing the doctrine there as plainly as they find anything, have 
admitted its existence, and then boldly joined issue on it, with 
the avowed purpose of giving the lie to the Bible, by proving 
the doctrine false. 

But it is altogether aside from our present purpose to discuss 
its truth. We take it as it stands in the book — as one of the 
bold, original, magnificent conceptions of that sublime genius, 
or that Divine intelligence, which pervades all the Scriptures. 
Where shall we find any view of man so glorious, so august, so 
cheering, as that which binds all his families, all his generations, 
in one universal brotherhood of love — one heart beating at the 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 403 

centre of humanity, one life-blood flowing through the veins of 
all nations, one immortal spirit bursting forth from every taber- 
nacle of clay, fashioned after the image and likeness of God ? 
Who does not feel, that such a view is immeasurably more sub- 
lime and ennobling, than that which infidelity, and selfish 
cupidity have been laboring so hard to establish in its place ? 

In this doctrine of human fraternity lies the last great hope 
of the world for universal equality and liberty. If all men of 
all nations and races are brothers of the same great family of 
God, as the Bible teaches, then every one ought to have a 
brother^s portion in the inheritance of earthly blessings, as well 
as in the patrimony of immortality. And so, when the Bible 
doctrine comes to be fully understood and practised — when men 
come to understand their true relations to God and to one 
another — when, under the peaceful influence of the cross, they 
learn to love each other as children of one Father, and brethren 
of one family, they must become equals in all social, political, 
and religious rights — at least so far as equality is possible in a 
world of diversity and imperfection. Being thus constituted 
brothers and equals, in virtue of their common parentage in God, 
they wall all ultimately rise to the dignity of freemen, even as 
they come to see that they have no right to degrade each other, 
and no interest in trampling each other in the dust. The Bible 
contemplates a period when nation shall not rise against nation, 
and man will no more need to vindicate his own liberties at the 
sacrifice of those of his fellow man. That consummation will 
be realized just in proportion as this sublime doctrine of man^s 
common brotherhood takes possession of the heart of the world. 
Equality and freedom must grow out of man's fraternity ; and 
it is for the Gospel of love to develop them, even as it delivers 
the world from the thralldom of sin. This is the grand Scrip- 



404 ORIGINAL conceptions; ORj 

tural idea of universal emancipation. If the Son shall make you 
free, ye shall be free indeed. This is the only true theory, 
method, and hope of human liberty and equality. The battle- 
cry of oppressed humanity, the sublime watch-word of all human 
progress amongst the struggling nations, is, and ever must be, 
this divinely established trio of the word of God — Fraternity- 
Equality — Liberty ; not in the order of infidel Prance and Ger- 
many—'' Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,^' madly building 
human liberty on a foundation of sand ; but in the order of the 
Bible-reading, and God-fearing apostles of English and Ameri- 
can revolutions — Fraternity first, and then Equality, and then 
Liberty, planting itself on the Rock of Ages. When the down- 
trodden nations of the earth shall once learn that the true inter- 
est of man must be sought in the name of God and truth : when 
they shall come to understand that they are all free and equal 
because they are brothers ; and brothers because the common 
sons of God : when they shall be able to build all their rights 
and their hopes upon God, and to defend them with the high 
and awful sanctions of the word of God ; then shall be realized 
the grand Scriptural conception of the common brotherhood, 
equality and liberty of man ; then shall be proclaimed that uni- 
versal Jubilee of freedom which the Bible has from the begin- 
ning recognized and preached as the inherent and Divine birth- 
right of every nation and tribe and kindred of Adam's race : 
then shall be brought to pass that glorious consummation of 
universal peace, order and good will amongst men, which Chris- 
tianity has foretold as the result of her own Divine principles, 
which has been the theme of the earnest longings and midnight 
meditations of the master minds of all past ages ; for which the 
martyrs of civil and religious liberty in every land have poured 
out their life-blood on the scaffold and on the battle-field ; for 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 405 

which the saints of God have been praying so long ; for which 
statesmen have so often planned, and patriots sighed in vain ; 
and for which even now thousands of the noblest men that 
tread the earth are suffering in the prisons of European despot- 
ism, or wandering in exile, their desolated homes appealing to 
heaven for justice, and their enslaved countries silently await- 
ing the trumpet call of their resurrection morning. 

In a word, the one grand inspiring thought which we seek 
here to present, is, that the Bible is the true book of human 
liberty, the only book of hope for liberty, equality, and frater- 
nity amongst men. Men and nations have thus far been suc- 
cessful in securing the prize of civil and religious freedom, for 
themselves and their posterity, just in proportion as they have 
stood by the book of God ; and as they have departed from it, 
they have failed. This is the only Divine charter on earth for 
the rights and liberties of man. This is the only rock on which 
he can make his stand against tyranny, temporal, spiritual, civil 
or infernal, with success. With this book only can he know 
his rights — and knowing, dare maintain them. And when all 
the world shall be filled with the knowledge of this book, then 
shall all the world be filled with moral beauty and glory, for 
there shall be but one vast family of brothers, equals, and free* 
men, walking in the light of the Lord. Is there any moral 
grandeur in thoughts like these ? 'Tis the Bible that reveals it. 



Vn. ^THE DAY OF SACRED REST. 



As an illustration of our general subject — the moral beauty 
and sublimity of the things revealed in the Scriptures — let us 
now take an object somewhat different from any of those yet 



406 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OK, 

presented. It is the day of sacred rest, the Sabbath of God, 
as it is conceived of, and described, in the Bible. It has well 
been called the '' Pearl of days" — ''Heaven's antidote for the 
curse of labor." Instituted at the creation, and enforced by the 
high sanction of Divine example, incorporated into the memo- 
rabiha of the Decalogue, honored by the special encomiums of 
the prophets, and reenjoined by the great Head of the church 
at the new dispensation, it has come down to us, with all its 
venerable associations, and its sacred authority, as an ordinance, 
*'made for man " — an ordinance to be observed in its season to 
the end of time. It is unlike all other long-observed divisions 
of time. It has no natural index, like the day, the night, the 
year, to notch its periods as they pass. It is the '' day which 
the Lord hath made." And yet it is an institution upon which 
we behold the inscription, '* antiquity, universality, perpetuity." 
In order to obtain a full perception of the moral beauty and 
glory of the Sabbath, we must look at it in its intention and 
design, as developed in the Bible : for no part of the world has 
ever yet fully realized the Scriptural conception of this day of 
sacred rest. We must look away from the Sabbath as it is 
now seen, in its partial observance, often shameful desecration, 
to the Sabbath as it ought to be, and as it would be, if univer- 
sally observed according to the letter and spirit of the com- 
mandment. Even as it is, in the best parts of Christendom, 
in the rural parishes of England, in the highlands of Scotland 
and in many a quiet village of our own country, there is a 
peaceful glory around the Sabbath, that naturally lifts the 
thoughts to heaven. But what would it be, if the observance 
were universal, with no discordant element of business or 
worldly pleasure, to mar the grand idea of a world in repose, 
worshiping at Jehovah's feet ? 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AIS^D BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 407 

The best way to get the Scriptural conception of the Sab- 
bath fully before our minds, is to suppose first a world without 
any Sabbath. Suppose there never had been a day of sacred 
rest, no conception of it, no approximation to it amongst men. 
Suppose no Sabbath sun had ever poured its peaceful, hallowed 
light over the toiling millions of earth. Picture to yourselves, 
not a single nation, such as France during the Eeign of Terror, 
but a world laboring on forever, with no day of repose, no 
Sabbath of worship, no respite from work : work — work — work 
its only life-time. Think of men, women, and children, doomed 
to toil on, from day to day, the slaves of business, the drudges 
of labor, the worshipers and the victims of work — unending 
work. In the language of John Allan Quinton, '' Think of 
labor thus going on, in one monotonous and eternal cycle — the 
limbs forever on the rack, the fingers forever plying, the eye- 
balls forever straining, the brow for ever sweating, the feet for- 
ever plodding, the brain for ever throbbing, the shoulders for- 
ever drooping, the loins forever aching, and the restless mind for- 
ever scheming. Think — as your imagination beholds the 
unvarying wheel of work, the tread-mill of labor, thus going 
round, and round, and round, without a change, without a pause, ' 
from morn to night, from moon to moon, and from year to year 
— think if you can, of the desolations that must follow this 
absolute reign of labor over the whole realm of time. Think 
of the beauty it would efface ; of the merry-heart edness it 
would extinguish ; of the giant strengths that it would tame ; 
of the resources of nature that it would exhaust ; of the aspi- 
rations it would crush ; of the sicknesses that it would breed; 
of the projects it would wreck ; of the groans that it would 
extort, of the lives that it would immolate, and of the cheerless 
graves that it would prematurely dig ! See them, toiling and 



408 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

moiling, sweating and fretting, grinding and hewing, weaving 
and spinning, strewing and gathering, sowing and reaping, 
razing and building, digging and planting, unlading and storing 
striving and struggling ; — in the garden and in the field, in the 
granary and in the barn, in the factory and in the mill, in the 
M^arehouse and in the shop, on the mountain and in the ditch, 
on the road-side and in the wood, in the city and in the country, 
on the sea and on the shore, on the earth and in the earth, in 
days of brightness and days of gloom, in hours of sun and sea- 
sons of storm, in times of trouble and times of peace, in the 
heights of day and in the depths of night, through the savage- 
ness of winter and through the gentleness of spring, in the 
energy of youth and in the impotence of age, when health is 
merrily dancing in the blood, and when disease is eating up the 
strength, when death is in the lonely home, and when happy 
life encircles the hearth : — thus the wheel of labor would go 
round with the earth, and the children of industry, chained to 
its surface, must follow its ruinous circumvolutions, till 
exhausted by unnatural efforts, they relax their hold, drop off, 
and suddenly disappear ! Under the vassalage of such a gigan- 
tic oppressor as unrestricted labor, earth would rack with the 
sufferings of her offspring, while the all-absorbing prayer of her 
millions would be for Rest ! rest ! rest ! or the quiet slumber 
of the grave." 

Now, from this fearful picture of a world without a Sabbath, 
turn to contemplate the condition of man, when blest, not sim- 
ply with the Sabbath as it is, but with that universal and per- 
fect Sabbath which the Scriptures have depicted, and which is 
yet to reign on earth. Conceive of it as described by Isaiah, 
when men '' Shall call it a delight, the holy of the Lord, hon- 
orable ; and shall honor him, not doing their own ways, nor 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 4:09 

finding their own pleasure, nor speaking their own words/' 
Conceive of it, not as some pagan saturnalia, or papal holiday, 
when man is released from toil only to run riot with feasting 
and frolic and debauchery, but as a season when man's thoughts 
shall be lifted to the skies, to hold communion with God. Con- 
ceive of all nations of the earth, resting from their labors, as 
God did when he made the world. Conceive of the whole 
animate creation, both man and beast, reposing in calm enjoy- 
ment after every six days' toil. Draw the picture of a world 
at rest — a world in devotion — a world remembering the Sabbath- 
day to keep it holy. In the eloquent words of Quinton again, 
" Go forth at early morning, and climb the side of an upland 
peak, contiguous to some thickly peopled city. Gaze east- 
ward, southward, westward and northward — through the whole 
circuit travelled by the sun — and behold the delectable repre- 
sentation of Sabbath rest. Every sound breathes softer ; every 
tint gleams brighter : every scene seems fresher. Cast thy 
glance across the country — pass from field to field, from rill to 
river, from alp to glen, from hill to valley, from grove to grove, 
from one cluster of human dwellings to another, and read in 
every softened feature of nature, the sweet tranquillity of Sabbath 
rest I Oh, precious day ! — the workman's jubilee — the slaveys 
release — the shield of servitude — the antidote of weariness — the 
suspension of the curse I How it smoothes the brow of care ! 
How it brightens the countenance of gloom ! How it braces 
the enervated limbs of labor ! How it revives the drooping 
spirit of despair I How it gives wings to the clogged affections 
and aspirations to the soul I How it pours some drops of sweet- 
ness on the bitterest lot, and sheds some gleams of sun- 
shine athwart the saddest heart ! How it lifts the groveller 
from his low pursuits, and fills him with a noble self-respect 1 

18 



410 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

How it extingaishes the jealousies and rivalries of week-day oc- 
cupations, and links men's hearts in the bonds of brotherhood." 
Such in part is the contrast, between a world without, and a 
world with, the day of sacred rest, as drawn by the author of 
the ** Prize Essay on the Sabbath f and well may we too say, 
in the words of his beautiful motto from Herbert — 

" Oh, day most calm, most bright, 
The fruit of this, the next world's bud. 
The indorsement of supreme delight. 
Writ by a Friend, and with his blood ; 
The couch of time ; care's balm and bay : 
The week were dark but for thy light : 
Thy torch doth show the way." 

And if such be the true Scriptural conception of the Lord's 
day — the beau-ideal of Sabbatical rest painted by the pencil 
of inspiration — where shall we find in human literature a 
grander, nobler, lovelier thought ? But this thought, in all its 
length and breadth, the world owes to the book of God alone. 



Vin. — THE MILLENNIUM. 

The next object of contemplation which we select from the 
Scriptures, as one calculated to excite emotions of sublimity 
and grandeur in the mind, is the Millennium or latter-day glory 
— the future golden age — the last dispensation of the world's 
history, supposed to be a thousand years, in which the earth 
shall be filled with the glory of God, and all nations shall dwell 
in safety, plenty and peace. Indeed we take here a twofold 
object for illustration — embracing two distinct and glorious con- 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 411 

ceptions, which however we may survey at one view — namely 
the conversion of the world, and the subsequent reign of right- 
eousness upon it. 

It is amongst the clearest, and certainly the most blessed 
and joyful, of all the revelations of the book of God, that 
there is a time coming, we cannot tell how distant nor yet 
how near — but a time of universal righteousness and peace and 

« 

good will on earth ; when the Gospel shall prevail from the 
rising to the setting sun ; when all flesh shall see the salvation 
of God and walk in the light of his countenance ; when there 
shall be nothing to hurt o^ destroy in all his holy mountain : 
when the waste place shall be a fruitful field, and every desert 
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose ; when Zion's walls shall 
be salvation, her gates praise, and God her glory ; when Jew 
and Gentile shall meet together, and bond and free embrace 
each other as brothers ; when the kingdom and the greatness 
of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the 
saints of the Most High ; when they shall beat their swords 
into plough-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks ; nation 
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
war any more ; when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and 
the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and 
the young lion, and. the fatling together, and a little child shall 
lead them ; when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord as the waters cover the sea ; when that " old serpent, 
the Devil and Satan," who has deceived the nations so long, 
shall be bound a thousand years and cast into the bottomless 
pit, and this fair planet, no longer the dwelling place of sin, 
shall roll on amid the stars, a habitation of holiness, a paradise 
of glory and blessedness, a ^^ new heaven and new earth 
wherein dwelleth righteousness." 



412 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

Such is the period which we call the Millennium or latter- 
day glory, without being able to define when or how it will 
begin, when or where it shall end. It is enough for us that it 
is to be ; that its coming is amongst the sure decrees of Jeho- 
vah ; that it is foretold and anticipated throughout the entire 
predictions of the book of God. Such is the prospect of future 
and ultimate glory which, from the beginning to the present 
hour, has cheered the hopes and fired the zeal of the people of 
God. Such is the sublime vision of her destiny, which the 
Christian church, by the eye of faith and with the telescope of 
Divine promise, has been able to see in the darkest hour of tri- 
bulation, looming up grandly before her, like the orb of day 
through the scattered mists of the morning. Such is the voice 
of prophecy and of hope, which she has ever heard, crying to 
her from the future and from the heavens, saying : " Arise ! 
shine ! for thy light is come, and the glory of God is risen upon 
thee.'' It is the image of a perfect day, without a mist, with- 
out a cloud, without a storm, a noontide of glory, a picture of 
universal liberty, universal intelligence, universal happiness. 
No image was ever more distinctly before the human mind, no 
conception was ever more indelibly impressed on the heart of 
the church, no object ever made a stronger appeal to her faith, 
her hope, her entbusaism, than this belief, this anticipation of 
the conversion of the world, and the final triumph of Christi- 
anity. On the sure testimony of heaven we know, that whatever 
disasters may betide her, whatever labors must be endured, or 
dangers encountered, or however long the time may be delayed, 
the day of her redemption shall come, the whole world shall 
be converted, and Christ shall reign from sea to sea, from pole 
to pole. 

This is the idea which the Bible gives us, of the millennial 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 4:13 

or latter-day glorj. And who shall be able, before the time, 
adequately to measure the moral grandeur of a thought like 
this ? A world evangelized, a world emancipated from sin, a 
world redeemed to God ? What vocabulary of past ages, 
what images of human greatness shall furnish terms adequate 
to set before us the untold magnificence of such a period, or to 
express the full sublimity of such a conception ? And com- 
pared with all the other works that men have done beneath the 
sun — the victories of war, the pursuits of ambition, the achieve- 
ments of art, the building of cities, the founding of empires, 
the discoveries of science, how does the Missionary enterprise, 
founded as it is upon the Divine promise of the final 
success of the Gospel, catching enthusiasm from the sub- 
lime conception of a world redeemed, and going forth in 
God's great name to accomplish the work — ^how does the Mis- 
sionary enterprise rise up before us in all its world-wide majesty, 
its unutterable God-like grandeur ! But this conception from 
first to last is derived from the Bible. 

If the enterprise should fail at last, or success be deferred for 
thousands of years, infidelity itself must still admit, not only 
the existence of the thought, but the heroic daring of the pur- 
pose, and the matchless moral sublimity of the effort, to con- 
vert and save the world ; infidelity can never deny, whatever be 
the issue, that the bare conception of such a work does infinite 
honor to that sublime intelligence which first developed it, and 
to that generous, noble impulse, which through all ages, has been 
yearning for its realization. If Christianity should be doomed at 
last to die a martyr in this infidel world, as so many of her fol- 
lowers have done, and infidelity be left alone to dig her grave 
and write her epitaph, still the truth must stand forever con- 
fessed, that the largest, grandest, noblest enterprise of man, was 



414: ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS; OK, 

that whicli Cliristianitj undertook when she aimed to evange- 
lize the world. 

But no martyr's death shall be her destiny. No infidel foe 
shall ever write her epitaph. The vigor of immortal youth is 
ever in her footsteps. The life-blood of an infinite energy is 
coursing through all her veins, and conquest is written with 
God's own hand upon her brow. In the words of one of her 
heroic sons, Sylvester Larned — *^ Christianity is on her march, 
and nothing will stop it. She is moving forward ; and who- 
ever opposes her progress will only be crushed to pieces. She 
throws off the puny efforts of Infidelity, as the majestic lion 
shakes from his mane the dew-drops of the morning. She asks 
no armistice or compromise from her enemies ; if they will fall 
into the magnificent procession she is leading, they may yet be 
received : if not, they must abide the issue. Methinks the 
celestial bands are at this moment waiting to welcome her ap- 
proach to her native skies. Methinks the seventh angel has the 
trumpet to his lips, and is preparing to sound Hallelujah ! — 
for the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
Lord and His Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." 



IX. THE RESURRECTION OF THE. DEAD. 

But looking still further onward in the course of time, be- 
yond the millennium and beyond the tomb, we behold another 
revelation of sublimity and glory peculiar to the book of God. 
It is the Kesurrection of the dead. Through the far reach- 
ing predictions of the Old Testament and the New, there 
rises up, before the eye of faith, a vision of more than mortal 
grandeur — a picture of beauty, of wonder and yet of awe-in- 



I 
OBJECTS OF SUBLIMHY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 415 

spiring mystery, such as no earthly pencil can ever transcribe, 
no human imagination fully grasp. It is the vision of a resur- 
rection morning — the idea of a world reanimated — the spectacle 
of the buried generations of men awaking and starting forth 
from the long sleep of the grave — " this corruptible putting on . 
incorruption and this mortal immortality." It is that which 
Daniel beheld in his ancient night visions — " Many of them 
that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake ; some to ever- 
lasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And 
they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, 
and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever 
and ever." It is that of which Paul writes — " Behold I show 
you a mystery ; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be 
changed ; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 
trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be 
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." It is that of 
which He, who is the '' Resurrection and the Life," speaks — 
*' Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that 
are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
shall come forth ; they that have done good unto the resurrec- 
tion of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection 
of damnation." 

The doctrine of a universal resurrection of the dead, is one 
of the peculiar, distinctive, and fundamental doctrines of the 
Bible. Though once rejected and laughed to scorn by the 
philosophers of Greece, it is now established on as firm and broad 
a basis, in the convictions of men, as Christianity itself. From 
being derided at first as a fable, it has now become the loved 
and cherished belief of the whole civilized world, giving 
inspiration to all its hopes, diffusing glory over all its litera- 
ture. The immortality of the soul, does not stand upon a 



416 ORIGINAL conceptions; or, 

stronger basis of belief, than the resurrection of the body. It 
stands attested, first, by the sure promise of God, reiterated 
throughout the Scriptures, and secondly by the incontrovertible 
historical fact, that Jesus Christ arose from the dead, and be- 
came the first fruits of them that slept. 

But it is not so much the proof of the doctrine, as it is the 
sublimity and beauty of the conception, of a general resurrec- 
tion from the dead, that we are now concerned to notice. 
What a compensation for all the ravages of disease, for all the 
inroads of sufi'ering and decay, for all the horrors of death, is 
found in the fact, that the human body shall be raised immortal 
and incorruptible — that the gathered trophies of the grave 
shall be reconquered and brought back again — that death 
shall be swallowed up in victory — that the last great enemy of 
man shall die ! Where shall we find words, in the Bible or out 
of it, to utter the inameasurable glory and. grandeur of that 
spectacle which the universe is yet to see, when the archangePs 
trumpet and the voice of God shall call the slumbering nations 
of the dead from their tombs ? If it would have been sublime 
and glorious to stand at the grave of Lazarus — to hear the 
summons, ** Lazarus ! come forth,^' and to see a single man, that 
had been dead four days, walk forth again in all the fullness of 
life : what shall it be to stand upon the earth at the latter day, 
to behold the countless generations of Adam, bursting all the 
bands of death, rising into newness of life, and putting on those 
forms of immortality, which soul and body shall wear forever ? 
What imagination shall paint, what poet or prophet's pen de- 
scribe the glories, the wonders, the brightness, the beauty, the 
grandeur of that morning ! when on every hill and in every 
valley, from every mountain, rock and river, from every isle and 
ocean, from every desert-waste and every forest solitude, and 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 417 

every crowded city on earth, the dead shall live again ! the good 
to die no more ! One day — one hour shall repeople the earth 
with all her <jhildren, and restore the ruins of thousands of 
years ! 

" See truth, love, and mercy in triumph descending, 
And nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom : 
On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending, 
And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb." 

There is no theme which inspires the sacred writers with a 
higher enthusiasm, than this doctrine of the resurrection. And 
well it may. The question of the sorrowing patriarch — ** If a 
man die, shall he live again ?-' is one that comes home to every 
human heart. All that we hold dear on earth is involved in 
that question. All that we hope for hereafter is at stake upon 
the answer. We stand by the death-bed of our fondest friends 
— ^we bid them what appears to be a last farewell — we follow 
them to their cold and silent resting-place in the grave, as 
others will soon follow us. ** We call, but they answer not 
again !" Bereaved, astounded, stricken nature asks, have they 
gone forever — shall we see them no more ? Has that curiously 
and wonderfully made body — '^ the human form divine," — perish- 
ed ? That brow of beauty, " the dome of thought and palace 
of the soul " — that eye of genius, that tongue of eloquence, 
that form radiant with celestial fires — the hand that could 
execute, the heart that could beat in fondness, the intellect that 
could grasp the laws of worlds and systems, the imagination 
that could conceive every varying aspect of beauty and gran- 
deur, the spirit that so often aspired after God and glory — are 
all these forever buried in the dust? No I it cannot be ! All 
nature answers, No ! The word of God, from the beginning to 

18* 



418 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

the end, answers No I He, who is the " Eesurrection and the 
Life," who gave his own life for the life of the world, with a 
sublimity of utterance never before heard at the grave, answers, 
No ! " Thy brother shall rise again." We must die — all die, 
because Adam sinned 1 But since Christ has died, and risen 
from the dead, we die only to live again. Mortality and im- 
mortality, alike, belong to man. 



(( 



An angel's arm can't snatch him from the grave, 
Legions of angels can't confine him there." 



And yet there are men, aspiring to be called masters of taste 
and genius, who turn away from the Scriptures, as if no beauty 
or grandeur .could be found in these Divine revelations. But if 
the doctrine of a universal resurrection of the dead be not sub- 
lime — as sublime as it is precious — ^it would be hard to tell, 
where, in all the realms of human thought, sublimity holds her 
dwelling-place. The real masters of taste and eloquence have 
not thought so ; but have admired and adored, as at the feet of 
Jesus, they have drunk in this vast and glorious conception. 
In high and holy meditation, the author of the " Night 
Thoughts," utters his most ecstatic strains, when, in view of the 
resurrection of Christ, he exclaims — 

" Hear, ye nations ! hear it, ye dead ! 
He rose ! He rose ! He burst the bars of death ! 

Shout Earth and Heaven ! 

This sum of good to man : whose nature then 
Took wing, and mounted with Him from the tomb ! 
Then, then I rose ; then first humanity 
Triumphant passed the crystal ports of light, 
Stupendous guest ! and seized eternal youth." 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 419 



X. — THE LAST JUDGMENT. 

Closely allied, in the Scriptures, to the conception of the 
resurrection of the dead, and immediately consequent upon it, 
stands another revelation of awful, unapproachable grandeur. 
It is the idea, now accepted by all men, of a final Judgment of 
quick and dead. '* It is appointed unto men once to die, and 
after this the Judgment." " Because he hath appointed a day, 
in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man 
whom he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto 
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." It is call- 
ed in Scripture, "The judgment of the great day." And it is 
not inappropriate to apply to it two other Scriptural titles — 
" The great day of God Almighty," '^ The great day of his 
wrath." For God himself, in the person of Christ, is to sit upon 
the throne of Judgment ; " and before him shall be gathered all 
nations." It is the day in which justice is to be publicly exe- 
cuted upon men and angels — the day for which all other days 
were made, when all the inequalities of time shall be adjusted, 
all the mysteries of Providence cleared up — the point from 
which all the cycles of eternity shall take their departure. It 
is the day which shall wind up the drama of man's terrestrial 
existence, exhibit a God in grandeur, a world on fire, and a 
universe assembled to behold the scene — the day which shall 
write upon the archives of eternity, " Time gone, the righteous 
saved, the wicked damned, and God's eternal government 
approved." 

" When shriveling Hke a parched scroll, 
The flaming heavens together roll ; 
When louder yet and yet more dread, 
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead." 



420 - ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OK, 

Now, you may have grown familiar with the most striking 
illustrations of grandeur in nature, in history, in art ; you may 
have walked amid the splendor of courts, or gazed upon the 
dread scenery of battles, or pictured to your imagination the 
vast array of gathering millions, all impelled by one great emo- 
tion. But where amongst the productions of art, or the records 
of history, or the images of nature, will you find any scene ade- 
quate to illustrate the awful, unapproachable sublimity of the 
judgment day ? 

Suppose you could 'have stood upon an eminence and looked 
down upon the armies of Xerxes, as upon one wide sea of 
living, heaving humanity ; and reflected as he did, that in less 
than a century, all those millions should be still and silent in 
the dust. Suppose you could have commanded a view of Nav- 
arino, or of Trafalgar, when the hottest vials of human wrath 
were poured forth for the mastery of the hour ; or surveyed 
the scene at Waterloo, where nations mingled in the strife, and 
where the fate of Europe trembled on the point of the bayonet. 
How would language fail to express the overwhelming emotions 
excited by such scenes ! But what are all these to the 
mighty gatherings, the dread issues, and the high emotions, of 
the judgment day ! Perhaps you have gazed upon that sub- 
lime master-piece of art. West's picture of *' Death on the Pale 
Horse," founded upon a single verse in the book of Revelation. 
Did you mark well that fearful impersonation of irresistible 
might and fury — that impetuous steed, trampling upon his 
slaughtered and dying victims, manhood in its prime and woman 
in her beauty, childhood in its innocence and decrepid old age — 
that ghastly rider with his brow of thunder, his eye of fire, his 
look of vengeance, his uplifted hands scattering arrows, fire- 
brands and death, his long dark retinue of demons, gorgons 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 421 

dire, and hydra-headed monsters, *' fierce as ten furies, terrible 
as hell ?" And did you not stand, mute and spell-bound before 
the awful, mysterious grandeur of such a picture ? But what 
is ^' Death on the Pale Horse,^^ could you even face the reality, 
compared with the scenes of the last judgment ? 

You, perhaps, have read Macaulay's magnificent description 
of that august assemblage (such as no other nation but England 
could have produced), which sat upon the trial of Warren 
Hastings — when all that was dignified in high birth and official 
station — all that was profound in legal wisdom, brilliant in wit 
and beauty, commanding in eloquence, rich and powerful in the 
gorgeous paraphernalia of a titled nobility — the statesmen, 
jurists, orators, philosophers, heroes, high-born ladies, and 
nobles of the earth — were gathered together for the hearing 
and the adjudication of the great cause : when, before all that 
vast, and brilliant auditory, the great orator — the expounder 
of English law, the champion of English justice — said with 
uplifted hand and solemn voice : ^' I impeach Warren Hast- 
ings 0^ high crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the 
name of the House of Commons, whose trust he has betraved. 
I impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose ancient 
honor he has sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people 
of India, whose rights he has trampled in the dust, and whose 
country he has turned into a desert. Lastly, in the name of 
human nature itself ; in the name of both sexes ; in the name 
of every age and of every rank, I impeach the common enemy 
and oppressor of all." 

Who can fail to appreciate the moral grandeur of a scene 
like this ? Who can read of it, even now, without partaking 
somewhat of the deep and powerful emotions which filled the 
heart of every actor and spectator on that great trial ? But 



422 OEIGIITAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

what was that august assembly, with all its pomp and power, 
its absorbing interest and its mighty issues, the wisdom of 
Burke, the eloquence of Sheridan, the fate of Hastings, com- 
pared with that day of final, irreversible decision, in which we 
are all to stand before the judgment seat, not as spectators but 
as actors ; when, in the presence of an assembled universe, in 
the presence of God the judge, the accusing angel shall lift up 
his hand, and in the name of heaven's everlasting law, impeach 
the sinner of high crimes and misdemeanors against the govern- 
ment of God ! when the righteous and the wicked shall part 
to meet no more ! when, from the great tribunal, shall go forth 
the sentence to those upon the right hand, *' Come, ye blessed 
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world," and to those upon the left, *^ Depart 
from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
and his angels !'' when the one shall go away into everlasting 
punishment, the other into life eternal 1 

It has ever seemed to us, that if there is a conception of 
unutterable sublimity shadowed forth in the language of mor- 
tal tongues, it is to be found in St. John's vision of the last 
judgment — '^ And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat 
on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away ; 
and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead 
small and great, stand before God ; and the books were opened ; 
and another book was opened, which is the book of life ; and 
the dead were judged out of those things which were written in 
the bookis, according to their works. And the sea gave up the 
dead which were in it ; and death and hell delivered up the 
dead which were in them : and they were judged, every man 
according to their works. And death and hell were cast into 
the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 423 

was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake 
of fire.'' Surely if there be sublimity any where, it is in the book 
of God. 

XI. THE HEAVENLY WORLD. 

Let US turn now to another object of surpassing beauty and 
glory revealed in the Scriptures. It is the idea of Heaven — 
the Christian Paradise — the Spiritual, Eternal world : " the 
House of many mansions," " the City that hath foundations whose 
maker and builder is God,'' the New Jerusalem above, " pre- 
pared as a bride adorned for her husband," the high and holy 
Mount Zion, whose streets of gold, whose gates of pearl, whose 
walls of precious stone, "had no need of the sun, nor of the 
moon, to shine in it : for the glory of God did lighten it, and 
the Lamb is the light thereof." 

It is not needful that we should stop to expatiate on the 
moral beauty and sublimity of the Scriptural conception of 
heaven. It would be a boundless theme. There is a glory 
here too high for mortal tongues, too bright for mortal vision. 
The very word '' Heaven," wherever the Bible has been trans- 
lated into the languages of earth, has become the highest expres- 
sion of all that is lovely, all that is pure, all that is joyous, 
blessed, glorious. When thought labors, and imagination 
breaks down, when all terms of beauty are exhausted, and all 
images of earthly grandeur fail — when the eye cannot see, nor 
the ear hear, nor the heart conceive, and the tongue can no fur 
ther express — we are accustomed to shadow forth all the rest 
by one word — Heaven ! The living know no sweeter phrase : 
and when the thoughts of the dying have passed from all sub- 
lunary things, the last inspiring word that lingers on their 



424 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OK, 

stammering tongues, is still — Heaven ! the Heaven of the Bible I 
There is perhaps no point at which the religion of the Bible 
more signally evinces its superiority over every thing else that 
men have called religion, than in this sublime, and glorious 
revelation of the heavenly world. The highest conceptions 
which the old Greeks had of Mount Olympus or of the Elysian 
Fields, the sensual paradise of Mohammed, the future " hunting- 
grounds " of the Indian, the spheres and transmigrations of 
ancient and modern paganism — how low, grovelling, and con- 
temptible are they all, compared with the exalted spiritual hea- 
ven of Christianity ! 

*' Every thing in a nation," remarks Professor Gaussen, 
" may be measur ed by one standard ; the height of their hea- 
ven. If their heaven is low, every thing here on earth feels its 
debasing influences : every thing at once becomes more limited 
and more grovelling ; the future becomes more circumscribed : 
patriotism is materialized, generous traditions are engulfed, the 
moral sense becomes effeminated, the worship of self alone is 
exalted, and all conservative principles depart, one after ano- 
ther," 

Now it is the peculiar glory of Christianity to have revealed 
the highest, holiest heaven which the world has ever known or 
the mind of man conceived. Every element of moral beauty 
and grandeur clusters around the final abode of the blessed. 
The whole creation of God was beautiful and good, as it came 
from his almighty hand. The primeval paradise, was doubtless 
beautiful and glorious. The earth, when decked in its vernal 
bloom, still retains something of its original beauty and glory, 
notwithstanding all the desolations of sin and death. But what 
was Eden in all its glory, what is earth at its best estate, com- 
pared with the dwelling-place of God and glorified spirits — the 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 425 

home of all moral, spiritual, Divine perfection ! Well may 
we call it " the better land,'' and its children a '* happy band." 
How many a weary pilgrim through life's great wilderness has 
been cheered and comforted in the prospect of reaching that 
better land ! How many a poor tempest-tossed voyager on life's 
great ocean, has girded himself with new strength at the 
thought of that haven of immortal rest I How many voices 
of the living and the dead are ever cheering us onward to that 
** El Dorado," of human hope — that ^'Ultima Thule," of perfect 
fruition — that Canaan of all the promises ! How many a 
mourner in Zion has caught a glimpse of that better land I 

" Look up ! there hope 
To meet again in that pure clime where blooms 
The Tree of Life unfadingly — blest chme ! 
Where evermore shall rest the true and good 
Beneath the shadow of the central throae. 
How calmly rest ! where every storm is hushed 
To peace, and cloudless skies are beautified 
With everlasting day ! soft is the light 
That glances on their brows, and pure the gales 
That breathe their music there — the light, the breath, 
The melody of Heaven." 

Look for a moment at the elements of moral beauty and sub- 
limity, associated with the Scriptural representation of heaven. 
It is a place of rest — the saint's everlasting rest ! And how 
sweet is rest to the heavy-laden ! '* They rest from their labors 
and their works do follow them." There the wicked cease from 
troubling, and the weary are evermore at rest. It is a place of 
holiness — immaculate holiness. '' There shall in no wise enter 
into it any thing that defileth or worketh abomination or 
maketh a lie." Its employments are all holy, its inhabitants 



426 OKIGINAL CONCEPTIOIsS ; OR, 

are all sinless. Who are those before the throne, clothed in 
white raiment, having palms in their hands ? ^* These are they 
that came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'' It is a place 
of knowledge — endless growth in the knowledge of God, his 
attributes, his works, his ways, and all his creatures. Here we 
see through a glass darkly ; but there. face to facer Here we 
know in part, and we understand in part, but there we shall 
know even as we are known. It is a place of society — com- 
panionship with God, with angels, with just men made perfect. 
" And I beheld, and lo ! a great multitude which no man could 
number, of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues 
stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with 
white robes and palms in their hands." It is a place of joy and 
fruition in the presence of the Lord. '* And I heard the voice 
of harpers harping with their harps ; and they sung, as it 
were, a new song before the throne." '^ And there shall be no 
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be 
any more pain : for the former things are passed away." 
** The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 
them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water, and 
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." It is a place 
of immortal life — an endless existence, ^' an inheritance incor- 
ruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Eternity is 
stamped upon all the joys of heaven. And what a thought of 
grandeur is — Eternity ! What duration lies unfolded beneath 
its endless years ? Eternity ! without a shore, without a bound 
— without one waning star, without one setting sun, without 
one falling leaf I What sights of wonder may be seen : what 
heights of grandeur may be scaled : what deeds of glory may 
be done : what fields of knovrledge may be scanned : what 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 4:27 

mysteries of God and nature solved : what years of bliss enjoy- 
ed, or nights of woe endured, during the long life-time of eter- 
nity ! Could you take the wings of morning light and travel to 
the utmost verge of day — to the point which no thought of 
man or flight of angel hath ever reached — could you, from that 
point and with that radius, walk slow paced and step by step, 
the outer circumference of the universe, still you would have 
no adequate measure of the long life-time of eternity. Even 
then, when the weary circuit was done, and had been repeated 
again and again — to borrow the words of another — '' the clock 
of Eternity would not have struck one !" It was a sublime 
conception of Napoleon, when on the eve of battle at the base 
of the Pyramids, he reminded his soldiers, that from those lofty 
summits forty centuries looked down to behold their actions I 
But what are forty centuries with all their deeds of glory, forty 
times told, to the long life-time of eternity — " boundless, end- 
less, and sublime," — the ocean of existence I 



* Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow, 
Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou roUest now." 



And yet men in their incredulity and folly, have asked, " Can 
there any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" any thing noble, 
any thing great, any thing worthy of the homage of the wise ? 
We have only to ask, in reply, is there any thing sublime and 
beautiful in heaven — any thing precious in the boon of immor- 
tal life — anything grand in the universe of God ? If so, come 
and see; it shall be found here also, in the book of God. What 
would the world be, and what would life be to man, without the 
hope of heaven ? What would man himself be without the 
doctrine of immortality, to compensate for the desolations of 



428 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

death, and to supplement his present narrow existence ? And 
is death an eternal sleep, alike to the wicked and the holy ? Is 
the conception of heaven all a dream, intended to deceive us ? 
Is there no rest for the weary but in the grave — no abode of 
blessedness and glory for the good and true ? Take away the 
Bible, and who shall assure us of a heaven ? Who shall tell 
us of Elysian Fields, or classic fables, as the ground of our 
future hopes ? Take away the Bible, and you have taken away 
the only heaven of which we have any certain knowledge, the 
only heaven that a good man would care to live, or dare to die 
for. Take away the Bible, and you have robbed us of our all — 
you have left us this feverish dream of life, you have chained 
us to the world and sin and death — you have dug the grave of 
all our fondest, subUmest hopes — and sent us to lie down in the 
dust, saying to corruption — '' Thou art my father j to the worm, 
thou art my mother and my sister." 

" earth ! thou beauteous form of emptiness ! 
Can'st thou presume to satisfy or calm 
The ceaseless yearnings of the deathless soul ? 
Can'st thou presume to hold, in thy weak grasp, 
The proud aspirant to the crown of Hfe ? 
And who are those that love thy dust so well, 
That they would riot there ! there breathe their last ! 
There stretch themselves in everlasting sleep ! 
They raise the hand with impious scoffs and swear— 
The land from which they sprang is but a dream ! 
A dream ! — By yonder clouds that catch the glow 
Of Paradise — by yonder lights that flash 
Upon its towers — ^by yonder floods that dash 
Against its walls — by all the signs above. 
And by the deep, low voice within — 'tis false ! 
False ! sliout the cherubim before the throne : 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 429 

The demons mutter from beneath — 'Tis false ! 
The ceaseless thunder of the train of worlds 
Proclaims it false ; and the last lingering voice 
Of nature's dying music whispers, false.' ^ 



XII. — ^THE SCHEME OF REDEMPTION. 

Take yet auother, and the last illustration we shall offer ; it 
is the Scheme of Redemption, or plan of salvation, as it stands 
unfolded in all the Scriptures. This manifestly is the great 
essential theme of our theology, the central truth of Christianity, 
around which all others revolve as the planets around the sun. 
This brings us directly to the cross — to the incarnate Deity who 
suffered there — to the ample and amazing atonement for sin, 
which was there made. It is not our purpose at present, how- 
ever, in speaking of the Eedemption that is in Christ Jesus, to 
discuss its theological bearings, or to expound its saving merits ; 
but simply to hold it up for your contemplation as an object of 
infinite beauty and grandeur. It is the one peculiar and exalted 
conception that runs through every chapter of the book of God, 
and gives to all its revelations the concinnity and compactness 
of a perfect science. We call it the scheme of redemption, or 
the economy of grace, or the plan of salvation, or the method 
which God has devised, and by which he proposes to rescue the 
guilty and lost soul. It is called in Scripture the " Way of 
Life.'' But, by whatever name we designate it, it is a perfect 
and Divine system — consistent in all its parts, complete in all its 
provisions, and so distinctly drawn, in all its great outlines, 
that, '^ the way-faring man, though a fool, need not err therein." 
It was finished when the Son of God expired on the cross ; it 



430 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OK5 

stood before the world fully revealed when the last angel of the 
Apocalypse closed the canon of inspiration. Before its sublime 
and glorious doctrines, all the great intellects that have adorned 
the annals of the church — from Paul to Augustine, from Agus- 
tine to Calvin, from Calvin to Chalmers — have bowed in pro- 
found, admiring homage. It is a scheme of infinite wisdom 
and infinite grace, alike worthy of God and worthy of man^s 
acceptance. It brings salvation to man, and a rich revenue of 
glory to God. By it mercy and truth are met together, right- 
eousness and peace have kissed each other. Into its deep 
mysteries the angels desire to look. And in view of some of 
its great characteristics, the apostle exclaims — '^ the depth of 
the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ; how 
unsearchable are his jugments and his ways past finding out 1^' 

The atonement of Christ, or the redemption of the soul from 
gin and death by the blood of the cross, is represented in the 
Scriptures as a great salvation and a great mystery, as the glad 
tidings of great joy to all nations, and the glorious gospel of the 
grace of God. The sacred writers speak of it as the power of 
God and the wisdom of God ; and when they desire to glory 
in nothing save the cross of Christ, they evidently feel that their 
doctrine is as sublime and beautiful, as it is true and precious. 
We have only to look upon its outlines, to see the exceeding 
glory and beauty and moral grandeur of this great salvation. 

First, the scheme is all of God. — Originating in the counsel 
of eternal wisdom, flowing from the fullness of the Father's love, 
it was accomplished by the voluntary obedience and sacrifice of 
the Son, and it is applied to man by the saving influences of the 
Holy Ghost. It is a Divine and perfect salvation. Next, its 
adaptation to man, as a remedy, is complete and glorious. It 
saves him when there was no arm to save him ; when he had 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BKAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 431 

no power or even purpose to save himself — saves him from all 
his enemies, and from his own suicidal hand. It saves him in 
his impotence — saves him from all his w(jes — saves him notwith- 
standing all his guilt. It is offered to him without money and 
without price. Its conditions are the lowest and the simplest 
that could consist with the glory of God, or the well-being of 
his moral creatures. It is a salvation all of grace, free, sove- 
reign, unmerited grace. Another element of moral beauty 
and grandeur belonging to the salvation of the cross, is seen in 
the greatness of the boon which it confers on man. It trans- 
forms the child of woe, the slave of sin, the rebel against God, 
into an heir of glory. It releases him from the wrath and curse 
of a violated law ; it restores to him the lost image of his 
Maker ; it raises him from the death of sin ; and instead of the 
pains of hell which would have been his portion forever, it gives 
him a title, clear and sure, to eternal life in the Paradise of 
God. ^' Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed 
on us that we should be called the sons of God." Again, the 
exceeding glory of this salvation by the cross is exhibited in 
yet another fact — that it binds all its subjects in willing, grate- 
ful and eternal homage to the person of their Divine Redeemer. 
It thus secures, aiid that beyond the possibility of a failure, 
that love to God, and to all that bear the image of God, which 
is the fulfilling of the Divine law, which, in man, is the counter- 
part of the Divine character, and which constitutes the harmony 
and happiness of heaven. And still farther, we behold an 
exceeding beauty and glory in the grand ultimate design or 
final cause of this salvation. The gospel of Christ proposes a 
remedy for the lost — it seeks to save a multitude of souls from 
everlasting death. That is its object — its sublime and benefi- 
cent purpose, as it relates to man. But it has an infinitely 



432 ORIGINAL conceptions; or, 

higher end and aim in relation to God. Its grand, ulterior and 
eternal purpose, is to glorify God — to manifest to all the moral 
intelligent universe, by the redemption of man, the wisdom, 
grace and power of the infinitely perfect God. It seeks to 
save man and make him holy, that he may attain the chief end 
of his existence, which is " to glorify God and to enjoy him 
forever. 

Such are the essential features of the Gospel : such is the 
sublime doctrine of salvation by grace through the death of the 
cross. Is there nothing wonderful, nothing beautiful and god- 
like in such a theme ? Is there nothing attractive to you in 
the theory, nothing precious in the story of the cross ? Is there 
no divinity that ^* stirs within," which shall win your admiring 
and adoring love to this Divinity that shines so fully from the 
cross ? Is it nothing to you that infinite wisdom, eternal love, 
and almighty power have all combined to perfect a remedial 
'ystem for the salvation of our ruined race ; and that all these 
concentre in the cross ? 

'* The w^orld is full of proof," says Dr. Spring in his beautiful 
book— ^' The Attraction of the Cross "— " The w^orld is full of 
proof of the intense interest with which the giddy and thought- 
less have contemplated the cross, and the devout gloried in it. 
No minister of the Gospel ever rehearsed the narrative without 
a listening auditory ; no mother ever sang it over the pillow of 
her babe without tenderness ; no child ever read it without a 
throbbing heart. No living man ever perused it with indiffer- 
ence ; no dying man ever listened to it without emotion. The 
cross will be remembered when every thing else is forgotten. 
It has intrinsic power ; and God himself has invested it with 
attractions peculiarly its own. The Scriptures point to the 
cross, and say, * Behold the Lamb of God V The most emphatic 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 433 

announcement they make is — ^ Behold the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world !' The brightest and most 
wondrous vision of John, of all he beheld on earth, when light- 
ened by the glory of the descending angel, and of all he beheld 
in heaven, was that of which he says — * I beheld, and lo ! in 
the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in 
the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain !' 
Nothing will interest you like the cross. Nothing can do for 
you what the cross has done." 

''He that stands beneath the cross," says Dr. Thornwell, 
*' and understands the scene, dares not sin — not because there 
is a hell beneath him, or an angry God above him, but because 
holiness is felt to reign there — the ground on which he treads 
is sacred — the glory of the Lord encircles him, and like Moses, 
he must remove the shoes from his feet. The cross is a vener- 
able spot ; I love to linger around it, not merely that I may 
read my title to everlasting life, but that I may study the great- 
ness of God. I use the term advisedly. God never appears to 
be so truly great, so intensely holy, as when, from the pure 
energy of principle, he gives himself in the person of his Son, 
to die, rather than that his character should be impugned. 
Who dares prevaricate with moral distinctions, and talk of 
death as a greater evil than dishonor, when God, the Mighty 
Maker, died rather than that truth or justice should be com- 
promised ? Who, at the foot of Calvary, can pronounce sin to 
be a slight evil ? Here then lie%the most impressive sanction 
of Revelation." 

But let this suffice. We have been endeavoring to show 
what conceptions of spiritual and immortal beauty, what objects 
of intellectual and moral grandeur the book of God reveals to 
us. And surely our main proposition — that it does contain such 

19 



4:34: ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OE, 

things in their highest glory — is abundantly sustained. We 
have singled out for illustration, twelve distinct examples — the 
Divine existence, the Providence of God, the personal character 
of Christ, the doctrine of special Divine influence, the church of 
God, the common brotherhood of man, the day of sacred rest, 
the Millennium, the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment, 
the heavenly world, and the scheme of redemption. It is mani- 
fest, that we might multiply such illustrations to almost any 
extent. For it is the prerogative of the word of God to turn 
every thing which it touches into gold — to invest all other things 
with the glory of the Lord. All its revelations are either inhe- 
rently or relatively snblime. By taking hold upon the soul, 
upon eternity and upon God, they at once take hold upon all 
the elements of moral beauty and grandeur. Nothing can be 
low or insignificant, which affects the well-being of the universe, 
which concerns the eternal destiny of man, which relates to 
the interests of virtue, human, angelic or Divine. All the 
revelations of the Bible therefore are either grand in themselves, 
or they borrow grandeur from the great things with which they 
stand connected. And instead of asking what there is in the 
Bible entitled to the attributes of greatness, it would be far 
more rational to ask, where else in the literature of the world, 
we shall find any thing possessing sublimity and beauty by a 
title like that of the Bible — a claim that shall stand good, 
when this earth shall be dissolved and these heavens shall melt 
with fervent heat. The grag^ withereth, the flower faileth ; 
But the Word of the Lord abideth forever I 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMTTY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 435 



XIII. RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION. 

We have now completed our task. We have walked about 
Zion and marked her bulwarks. We have surveyed the glory 
of the Outer Temple. We have endeavored to show that the 
study of the Scriptures, as containing the finest models of taste, 
the true elements of hterature and science, and the grand 
fundamental facts of religion, is essential to all correct educa- 
tion in youth, all sound learning in manhood. For this purpose, 
we have had occasion to take a wide survey of the diversified 
characters of the book of God. We have grouped together, 
for successive views, its notable women, its illustrious young 
men, its inspired bards, its eloquent orators, its ancient sages ; 
we have also gazed with rapture upon its scenes of moral 
beauty and its themes of more than earthly grandeur. 

Well then may we prize the Bible as our book of books — the 
charter of our liberties, the oracle of our religion, the fountain 
head of all our high civilization. The Bible indeed belongs not 
exclusively to any one era or department of literature, but to 
all. Having pervaded and moulded all with which it has come 
in contact, it belongs alike to ancient and modern, to Classical 
and Theological literature. It is in the Bible that the long 
stream of the old Hebrew literature, flowing down like a mighty 
river from the heights of Paradise beyond the flood, sweeping 
across the vast plains of the oriental world, and bearing on its 
bosom the very ark of primeval civilization, meets another 
noble stream, both deep and broad, coming from the west — the 
stream of classical antiquity, flowing from the steeps of Parnassus, 
the cool groves of Arcadia, and the temple-crowned hills of 
Italia, bearing on its enchanted waters the immortal Argosy of 



436 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

Grecian and Roman genius. It is in the Bible that these twc 
great streams of oriental and classical literature meet and blend 
their currents. And it is from the Bible again, after mingling 
and purifying their waters, that thej issue and go forth to spread 
life and beauty over the whole domain of Christendom. The 
three great languages, which contain all the choicest treasures 
of antiquity, are the Hebrew, Greek and Latin. These three 
tongues were reconciled at the cross. Two of them were 
mother tongues of the Bible. Brought into strange but har- 
monious union around the head of the dying Son of God, they 
were thus consecrated to their grand mission, as it were by a 
baptism of blood ; and from that day to this, they have been the 
classic repositories of all our Christian learning. In the Hebrew, 
Greek and Latin of the cross, which proclaimed '^ Jesus the King 
of the Jews " to all the world, a new era in the history of letters 
was inaugurated — an era from which the word of the Lord 
was to date its going forth from Jerusalem into all the lan- 
guages of the earth, and in which it was to hold undisputed 
supremacy over the human mind. By these three great chan- 
nels was an opening made for the world, into that deep mine of 
inexhaustible treasures, out of which have been dug all the 
richest jewels of truth and beauty that sparkle on the imperial 
brow of modern civilization. ^^ The City of God," says How- 
son, " is built at the confluence of three civilizations." 

But, shall we make sure of the main thing in this Divine 
Book ? Shall we enter the temple, and penetrate the vail into 
the holiest of all ? Allured by these, its lower, outward attrac- 
tions, shall we press on to behold and to enjoy the light of its 
inner spiritual glory ? Shall we so search as to find the pearl 
of great price, so act as to secure the good part ? Shall we 
so live by this light, as to possess the prize of immortal life ? 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 437 

Repenting of sin, obeying the Gospel, coming to God, as little 
children, shall we exercise faith in the Son of God, and rest 
our souls in calm unshaken confidence upon the blood of the 
Lamb? This, after all, is the grand subject-matter of the 
Bible — this, to each one of us, is the question of our immortality. 
Who has not felt the need of such a Faith ? Who has not 
longed to make sure of such a boon ? Who, under the deep 
searchings, and earnest cravings of our immortal, yet guilty 
nature, has not felt that the gospel of the Son of God alone 
must make him happy, or happy he shall never be ? And who 
from his experience of life and his certain prospect of death, will 
not respond, as from his heart of hearts, to those yearning con- 
victions of our common nature, which have been so beautifully 
expressed by that eminent philosopher, Sir Humphrey Davy — '* I 
envy no quality of mind or intellect in others, not genius, power, 
wit or fancy — ^but if I could choose what would be most delight- 
ful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm re- 
ligious belief to every other blessing : for it makes life a disci- 
pline of goodness — creates new hopes when all earthly hopes 
vanish, and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, 
the most gorgeous of all lights ; awakens life in death, and 
from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity ; makes 
an instrument of torture and of shame the ladder of ascent to 
Paradise ; and, far above all combination of earthly hopes, 
calls up the most delightful visions of palms and amaranths, 
the gardens of the blessed, the security of everlasting joys, 
where the sensualist and the skeptic view only gloom, decay, 
annihilation and despair." 

Shall this ''firm religious faith," so desirable, so blessed, so 
needful for us in life and in death, and to be breathed upon us 
only by the Spirit of God in the diligent study of his word — 



438 ORiGiisrAL conceptions; or, 

shall tills be our portion ? Whether it will or not, depends 
upon the use we make of that word. We are all voyagers 
upon life's great ocean. Our sails are set for the fair have? 
of immortality. But many treacherous seas must be passed : 
many hidden rocks and dangers lie along our vessel's course. 
We have but one chart and compass which can carry us safely 
through. It is the Bible. If we sail by it, our success will be 
certain, our recompense glorious. If we fail, the fault must be 
our own — the loss what tongue can tell I 

" They might have understood, the bard replied : 
They had the Bible. Hast thou ever heard 
Of such a book ! its author God himself; 
Its subject God and man, salvation, life, 
And death ; eternal life, eternal death ! 
Dread words ! that have no end, no bound. 
Most wondrous book ! bright candle of the Lord! 
Star of eternity ! the only star. 
By which the bark of man could navigate 
The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss 
Securely — only star that rose on time, 
And on its dark and troubled billows, still, 
As generation, drifting swiftly by. 
Succeeded generation, threw a ray 
Of heaven's own light, and to the hills of God, 
The eternal hills, pointed the sinner's eye." 

In looking back over what has been written in these pages, 
we cannot for a moment imagine that this unpretending volume 
will be at all suited to the taste of the times. Few perhaps of 
the great reading multitude will think it worth while to hear 
what we have to say upon a subject which they suppose them- 
selves to have mastered long ago. When the Bible itself is 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 439 

laid upon the shelf as an antiquated and useless record, fit 
only to be read at funerals or quoted occasionally in sermons, 
what chance has a mere book about the Bible, to gain the eye 
of this fiction-loving generation ? The world has no lack of books 
and no lack of readers. But the men and women of Dream- 
land — the heroes and heroines, big and little, natural and un- 
natural, black and white, which modern genius can make to 
order and turn ojff with the regularity of a steam-mill — these 
are the popular divinities that rule the hour. Every book- 
store is full of them. Every magazine, almost every newspaper 
greets its reader with a new tale of thrilling interest. Go into 
our steamboats and railroad cars, our circulating libraries and 
hotel reading-rooms, and you will find the people everywhere 
reading : reading as if they were a race of students ; reading 
as if they would read their eyes out ; reading as if life were not 
half long enough to do all the reading. 

And reading what ? Eeading this mushroom, yellow litera- 
ture, these endless shilly-shally novels and novelettes, whose 
productiveness, no longer dependent on the uncertain inspira- 
tions of genius, reveals an order of talent that works entirely 
by steam power. Such is the march of mind. And such are 
the books that are read by the million. These are the things ^ 
that assume to educate the young, and mould the intelligence 
of the people ; and do it by the double process of consuming 
the time which might be devoted to better reading, and of 
creating a taste which utterly unfits the mind for the acquisi- 
tion of solid and useful knowledge. 

For. stuff like this, the grand old book of God, whose history 
is notched in all the centuries of the past, and linked to all the 
destinies of the future, whose immortal words have awakened 
the energies and expanded the intellects of millions of the 



440 ORIGINAL CONCEPTIONS ; OR, 

mighty dead now in glory, is forgotten or contemned by the 
aged and the young. 

On trash like this, the great heart, and mind, and conscience 
of the reading world must now be fed. These dreams of ima- 
gination are offered as the daily food of a people's intellectual 
and moral life. These thousand and one creations of the brain, 
some moral, some immoral, some half and half of each, but all 
attractive in proportion to their extravagance or their skillful 
white-washing of some hideous form of lust or villainy — these are 
the books that find readers everywhere, and are now shap- 
ing the intellectual and moral character of the people. 

And what is the result of all this reading ? What is to be 
the end of this popular education by meatus of a fictitious litera- 
ture, universally diffused through the steam press ? Precisely 
that which the Prodigal Son arrived at, when having quitted the 
fat things of his father's house '' he began to be in want, and 
would fain have filled his belly with the husks which the swine 
did eat." Precisely the same, save only that our modern tale 
devourers are doing for their souls what the Prodigal only 
thought to do for his body, but was ashamed of himself and 
went back to his father's house. 

By this we do not mean to pass sentence of condemnation 
upon all works of imagination, nor upon all the writers of fic- 
tion. Prose fiction as well as Poetry, holds an important place 
in literature, and may be made a most useful medium of instruc- 
tive, entertaining knowledge. But oar censure at present lies 
asrainst the inordinate excess of the thin^;. Even a «:ood thino* 
does harm when it is pursued to the neglect or injury of other 
things equally good or better. When it threatens to engulf 
every other interest it becomes a positive eviF. And this is now 
the tendency of novel-writing as it regards the true interest of 



OBJECTS OF SUBLIMITY AND BEAUTY IN THE BIBLE. 441 

our literature and of our reading public. From the excessive 
laudation of the press, bestowing, upon every thing that can 
wield a pen, an immortality that Walter Scott himself might 
have coveted, one would suppose that the novel had well nigh 
monopolized the whole market of modern genius — demanding, 
as it seems, an amount of brains which the old Greeks and 
Eomans, in their utmost flights of fancy, never conceived of as 
a possible thing. " I have often maintained," says John 
Foster, ^* that fiction may be much more instructive than real 
history. I think so still ; but viewing the rout of novels as 
they are, I think they do incalculable mischief. I wish we 
could collect all together, and make one vast fire of them. I 
should exult to see the smoke of them ascend like that of 
Sodom and Gomorrah ; the judgment would be as just." 

But there is yet a reading public of a different order. 
There are some that still stand by the old landmarks. There 
is a large and respectable class who prefer fact to fiction, and 
who will not forsake ** the waters of Shiloah that go softly," 
for the wild and turbid streams of Dreamland. To them we 
turn. And if any thing we have written should be the means 
of increasing their admiration for the book of God, or of in- 
creasing their numbers, by leading the young to become Bible 
readers, this volume will have accomplished its end. 



THE END. 



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